oldies, but goodies..... and other items

[WALTEE <WALTEE@prodigy.net>]

This is for Melissa and Jim, my '73 Notch was born on February 16, 1973,
and delivered on February 20, to Frankfurt. From there , it's history is
unknown to me, but it made its way to S. Florida, where I picked her up
in 1986.  I assume it made its way here through Canada or S. America, of
which we have a large population from both. I realized that this car has
never been federalized, but there is a large "gray market" of cars down
here. Nowadays, to import a car to the US, you have to file with the
Government, and post a bond for the value of the car, then you have a
specific amount of time to have the car brought up to US specs. If you
don't produce proof of federalization within the time frame, the car is
seized, and "destroyed", and you lose your bond.  I guess that when mine
was brought in, either the rules were different, or that she resembled
something similar enough to avoid detection. At any rate, there is no
car inspections here in Florida, and the  emissions testing only goes
back for cars 10 years old or less, and even that is being fazed out
because the emissions dropped so far below the federal mandates. I don't
ever anticipate a problem from anyone about my Notch, unless I move to
California or something, however, I do have a set of beamed doors from a
'70 Square in the garage, and I always could get a new windshield. I
don't have any smog equipment on the engine (1641 cc w/ dual Webers,
manual tranny) but shouldn't the onus on the State to prove that the car
was altered to not conform, rather then the other way around?  I would
think they should have to prove that the car is illegal (this kind of
smacks of guilty until you can prove your innocence sort of thing), but
that's just me. Until then, I remain,
David Walters
'73 Notch (gray market, and digging every minunte of it)