Buying a car and planning some heavy modifications.

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Hi everyone.

I'm planning on buying a car here in Switzerland, which I would like to modifi. I know it is a very complex process, I'm trying to read a lot about this, but my lack of German language is not helping.

What i found out that there are two ways, to do some heavy modifications to your car. You can either do some kind of super MFK which cost 7-10k CHF where they check everything and decide if its ok or not.... or I have to become a car mechanic and get test number plates, I know it is still a illegal way of doing this but I heard it works.

I got three cars and some mods in mind:

Toyota supra mk3 7m-gte

Double the power of 7m-gte or swap it for 1jz-gte if there won't be any problems, or if its easier buy one swaped already from Europe and also Double the power (which should be easier because there are more tuv approved mods for this engine)

How does the engine swap work here? Is it completely illegal or you can change the engine without big problems if there was a version with this engine?

Or just LS swap it!!!!!!

Second car is a Lexus ls400

Main thing other than suspension would be - swap automatic to manual gearbox, but I think its going to be very problematic, because this car never came out with manual. Any ideas how to make this legal?

Also in the far future I would add a supercharger, nothing fancy, i could take it out before every mfk.

Last but not least Mitsubishi Galant VR4

Only possible way of buying this one is from Europe, because for the past year i didn't see a single one here for sale or on the road.

And would love to swap a steering wheel to the left side, because it would be my daily, and a lot of parkings near markets got this ticket machines on the left side

Is it possible to bring this car here and also do this swap?

So if anyone is able to help mi with these questions it would be nice. I would be happy to meet for a beer or two, and talk this through. I'm from canton Zürich, and if there are any car clubs, car meets happening with english speaking guys it would help a lot, because i could get up to speed much quicker, about how things work around here (of course im talking about mods).

Please don't write here if its worth it or not, only numbers mean something. Either way I'm planning on building one of this cars, but looking for cheaper alternatives.

2
I can't help but those are some nice Japanese youngtimers!

3
Basically, there are two proper routes:

1. Perform upgrades with components that have type approval in Switzerland from the manufacturer

2. Build your vehicle and have it homologated

The Swiss, especially the police, are fans of Fast and Furious only in the movie theatres.

https://www.20min.ch/story/polizei-l...l-592525461968

4
you'll never get those legal in switzerland. it will fail the 10k CHF test, i can guarantee it.

the garage plates won't help you unless you can set aside at least 100k CHF for actually starting a garage, insuring it and getting it inspected. garage insurance is expensive. the low value of the cars and modifications you are discussing suggest to me this isn't going to be a route you want to or are able to take.

the best option is to register the cars in the UK where these sort of modifications are fine. start an EU company which owns the UK registered cars (brexit doesn't change any of this). drive the cars only for reasons related to the operation of the company. e.g. 'testing modified cars in mountains'. you'll need to MOT the cars in UK once a year and store them outside switzerland. also you can't leave them parked at home or drive them on a school run or to by bread and milk from the shop. expect to be stopped often and controlled by police and border guards.

the tiny, tiny loopholes that allow this to be possible are severely restrictive and quite frankly, for the cars you are describing, just not worth it.

people get away with driving foreign registered cars only if they are pillars of the community, know the police and the cars are very beautiful, very valuable and not too loud.

edit - you asked about engine swaps. also not possible. even if there was a version of the car with that engine. e.g. you can't put a 2.7 engine in 911 which originally had a 2.2. obviously they only check visually and the numbers their book tells them. so if its a very unusual car / engine they are unlikely to know if it has the same number of cylinders and the same number. changing camshafts and other internal parts would also not be noticed. I have cars with the original type of engine producing double the rated power of the car registered as historic vehicles here. clearly if you rebuild the engine and do a better job than the manufacturer and it ends up with more power, that's just fine. likewise gearboxes and gear ratio go unnoticed. exhausts and wheels usually don't!

5
Have a look into ASA Directive 2a

https://asa.ch/it/biblioteca-online/direttive/

It is the handbook used by the MFK and tells you what papers are needed and what laws and regulation apply.

Swiss laws and regulations:

https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/de/cc/internal-law/74

UNECE Regulations:

https://unece.org/transport/vehicle-...gulations-0-20

EU Regulations:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/

6
how does that help when the police pull you over and impound the car and check every detail? it will happen. pretty easy to notice a blower! and you can't just 'take it out' anyway. forced induction engines are built completely differently.

it needs to be completely legal. nothing works unless it's legal.

amazed this hadn't already generated 1 million groans.

7
That's not quite true.

Tom

8
True, but I think it’s accurate enough for the purposes of this thread.

9
I have a box of "collaudo" bits, some of which I don't even bother with anymore.

Tom

10
Please don’t drive through my neighborhood. Thank you.

11
Where is it so that I can avoid it?

Tom

12
Why not try a conversion to all electric? You’ll get the performance without the noise. Range for a conversion will e nothing like an OEM EV though...

13
Because he's a romantic

14
Cant say much about car moding in CH, but I was attempting a Cafe Racer mod to an old bike ('84) I owned.

I acually bought 2 of the same model (XJ900)

The project would not mod the engine at all, but heavy frame mods, new front end, exhaust, tyres, you get the idea.

I research told me that almost all mods apart from bolt on after market stuff,

and even that requires each piece to be approved, that includes tyres!

(but luckily most major brands are pretty well covered.)

so no cutting into the frames, or even removing a dropout!,...so... absolutely no chance for... chopping of the sub-frame or moding the tank. none at all

But...

If you are willing to get any mod certified roadworthy, which entails through rigorous testing, which may..... include breaking shit!

Think crash testing! It is a possibility!

Then this is a path to roadworthyness.

But backflipping through these flaming hoops sound like the ultimate boss battle!

No nutter would go through this hey?

hang on...

There are guys doing this.

Enthusiasts. Willing to make the sacrifices to develop various mods so they can pimp bikes and sell them as exotics, here in CH.

Think hand built Harleys.

You must have seem the odd one knocking around CH.

Must cost a fortune!

How BAD do you want to do it?

15
...I would like to do this one...my dream since college...Honda CRX...

16
Oh, dear:

Tom

17
Lovely hobby

Well, you made lots of questions, so let's start with the Supra engine modification/swap.

There an organization called ASA which is façade for all the cantonal auto control organizations https://asa.ch/fr/ I link everything in FR but you can translate to DE or IT.

There is a big line in engine modification: 20% more of the original performance, no matter if you bore the cylinders to a larger diameter, swap engine or put an electric turbo (this will please electric fans).

The regulations are relatively friendly to increases of less than 20% in power. See ASA regulation 4.7.5 Engine volume/engine performance on pages 96 and 97. Basically, all you have to do is to demonstrate that the vehicle still has the emissions of gases and noise https://asa.ch/wp-content/uploads/on...a_F/index.html

More than 20% increase in performance? The ASA guideline refers to the Swiss Ordinance on the technical requirements for road vehicles art 97 § 3 ( https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1...25/frtra)whichwhich) roughly translates to:

And here is where I get lost. Is it possible to get a letter from the manufacturer saying you can do a swap? Anyway I've seen some cars with claimed more than 20% of performance increase and the tuners mentioned DTC https://www.dtc-ag.ch/

18
Meanwhile, engine leaks are sometimes allowed (at least before Brexit):

Tom

19
Trolling isn't what it used to be.

At least I hope it's trolling, otherwise wrong country mate

20
no way? i have series C too. awesome!