White Elford Turbo repatriated to the UK

[02Anders]

Hi guys,

I only very recently joined the forum. Basically because I only very recently became a RX-7 owner...
I've always loved the first gen. RX-7's and very nearly bought a beautiful and very unmolested (it was even on stock steel wheels!) dark red one about 5 or 6 years ago while I was living in Hong Kong. But as it stands, the RX-7 which is now parked in my garage, is my first RX-7 - in fact it's even my first Mazda.

The short version of the story is that my Danish mate, Claus,with whom I co-own and run ViaRETRO, spotted a white RHD (naturally) '83 Elford Turbo for sale in Sweden. It was a British car originally, but when a previous owner moved to Sweden, he took his Elford with him. Now, two owners later, it was up for sale again and Claus went to have a closer look. As you've no doubt guessed by now, we ended up purchasing the car.

Running ViaRETRO dictates that I spend waaaay too much time typing on my laptop, so I'm going to be lazy and cheat a little here, simply to keep the amount of typing down. Rather than give you the long story, I'll give those interested links to our RX-7 tales on ViaRETRO.

Here's Claus's first introduction of our purchase: http://www.viaretro.com/2018/05/my-firs ... ord-turbo/

And here's his story on repatriating the Elford to the UK: http://www.viaretro.com/2018/07/deliver ... o-england/

While by no means mint, it appears to be a reasonably sound and healthy example. The plan is to slowly improve it bit by bit while driving and enjoying it.
First step was of course to attempt getting a UK MOT on the Elford as part of getting it re-registered in the UK. However, it failed on a massively worn idler arm. Question is, where do I get a new one?? I'll also need a set of RHD headlights, so please let me know if you have a good secondhand set knocking about!

Needless to say, once the Elford is MOT'ed and back on UK plates, I'll write another update on ViaRETRO which I'll share here as well. But updates on ViaRETRO will of course be of more significant events. So I'll certainly be coming back here with smaller updates just as I will no doubt be asking heaps of newbie questions...

[gt_james]

Welcome to the forum, nice find!

[02Anders]

Welcome to the forum, nice find!

Appreciate it...

[Casey]

To the forum. A rare find, good to see another one will be back on the road in the UK.

[02Anders]

To the forum. A rare find, good to see another one will be back on the road in the UK.

Yup, just need to get that MOT sorted and then a bit of paperwork with the DVLA...

[Chud]

Hey man, congrats on the purchase.

Just buy new bushes and rebuild...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251742189626

[02Anders]

Well, that all took considerably longer than I had anticipated!
Either way, new bushes have now gone into the old idler arm and a set of RHD headlights have been installed. With that I've finally got a fresh MOT.

Next step - I need to tackle the DVLA so they can assign the car a new registration number.
Reading through the paperwork they've sent me (the V55/5 form), it seems I need to provide them with a Type Approval for the RX-7.
Really?? Do they seriously need me to give them papaerwork which they surely have themselves?? Seems utterly bonkers...
Even more so when considering that this actual car has previously been registered in the UK up until July 1999.
Anyway, if I really need to source this Type Approval, do any of you know where I might be able to get one from. And is the Type Approval for a '83 Elford Turbo the same as for a stock RX-7, or will I have to source some sort of specific Elford Type Approval?

Any input on this matter would be much appreciated...

[Chud]

I didn't have to do that for my series 1, all I sent them was the Swiss log book, proof its insured on the chassis number and new MOT cert (again on chassis number).

[gt_james]

You don't need a type approval for registering a vehicle. Many imports that were not originally sold in the UK market are registered on UK roads and weren't ever type approved.

[02Anders]

Thx guys!

I've looked into it all a bit more, and you're of course right. According to the DVLA website, for cars more than 10 years, I don't need the type approval. But that then leads me to my next question: Where do I find all the necessary data for the V55/5 document which I need to return to the DVLA for them to grant my Elford a UK registration? There's a ton of boxes to fill out with data such as length, wheelbase, unladen weight, max permissible towable mass, power/weight ratio, various emission numbers, and so on and so on and so on.....
Any bright ideas?