Cali Regulations

[Jared0934]

I will be moving from Okinawa to California, specifically to Camp Pendleton :sadwavey: . I've heard cali is pretty strict on modifications to cars, especially engine swaps... but maybe I heard wrong, I figured this is the rite spot to go... I would just like to know what are some of the do's and donts and a few things I should be aware of. Any help would be great

[duffman1278]

Don't drive like a jerk off. Done

[jeffc8486]

Don't drive like a jerk off. Done


Yeah that sums it up. Dont draw attention to yourself. If you have an SR dont get pulled over.

[Jared0934]

I thought that rule would be common sense. But you say don't get pulled over with an SR? So swaps are illegal?

[sevenstar]

i have an sr and i've been pulled over, nothing happened regarding my engine.... maybe you can get a vehicle shipped over here since your in the military?>

[sacco sideways]

and yes motor swaps are illegel, and if you bring a vehicle registered out of the state of cali, you have to get it "verified" which they look under the hood and stuff to make sure it doesnt exceed a certain smog limit or something like that. i had to do it when i bought a 240 out of state.

[Jared0934]

That would be nice, but I work TMO, the people who ship freight gear from port to port, and shipping back a car from what I understand is a total headache... It would probably be easier to buy a RHD car from a dealer that ships cars to ports for you. There are alot of rules and regulations to do it, plus it costs an arm and a leg... If you're in the air force I think they will ship it for free if you can prove you don't have a car in the US, but I don't think the marine corps does anything like that.

[DataXUnknown]

When I got my car "verified" (had to get it for salvage title I believe), I was running SR with no power steering and BOV and some other small goodies. Took it to the DMV (can be taken to a police station if you want haha) and a policeman came out and popped my hood and looked at the STICKERS underneath the hood. Such as the vacuum diagrams and EGR things and such. I don't know if thats luck or what they are really supposed to do.

Swaps may be illegal, but you would only get pulled over for being stupid or having something on your car that makes it look "race" like. (ex: cop popped my hood because I had "racing stickers" on it. I had one big socal-drift.com sticker that was it lol)

[sacco sideways]

yeah they only look at the stickers but if you got a huge turbo they might question it ? idk just make sure you have the stickers.

[Jared0934]

lol the things that get cops excited are rediculous... Well I don't plan on getting pulled over but shit happens as we all know.

Are there any regulations on the decibals of your exhaust? What about wheel width? I know in Okinawa it can't stick out the side of the wheel well above so you'd have to get it rolled out. or how low the car can be?

I don't know if on base has its own rules as well? This will be my first state side duty station I can own a car in, I've been in japan for the first 2 years of my enlistment.

[drift freaq]

Here's the deal don't try to bring a complete car. Its getting harder and harder even for military people to bring a car back. You can bring parts back.

There is a noise law 93DB and our cars seem to draw attention in that department, in certain area's of the state more than others. It's also up to the cops determination if your violating it.

As far as the Wheel width laws go it pretty much the same as in Japan if your tires stick out beyond the well area without the body covering it its illegal. Though its not a highly enforced law its on the books and you can get a ticket for it.
Most people just don't let tires stick out beyond the well because it looks pretty ghetto. A roll and pull or over fenders usually can take care of this.

There are actually height laws on the book as well but again most cops don't bother enforcing them. If you get a cop that would you will also be getting your hood popped as well. LOL

I will say if your in the military you will get away with more than non military. The tend to go easy on you guys for the most part. Except for a few LA county sheriffs who actually got in trouble for harassing a military guy.

[OkiDori]

Cool, I'm full okinawan/island girl and I moved to cali 3 years ago. I miss oki, did you happen to get a chance to go to nago circuit, or see any of the street races on route 6?
As far as cali laws, from my experience MP's on pendleton are chill. My ex who was stationed there had a 240 with sr. He never got popped but like most people in this thread said already dont drive like a jackass and cops won't hassle you.

P.S. bring back some jdm goodies lol just playing. Hope you enjoy Cali

[Okinawandrifter87]

Just don't do anything stupid.. its real easy to slip up and its also real easy to stay under the radar.

[spooled240]

i'm half okinawan/half white and i was over there a few years ago visiting family, awesome place i wish i could go again =]

as far as CA laws it sucks, but it's doable. There's just certain things you wanna avoid if you absolutely can not get pulled over. Having a big shiny exhaust is probably the most common thing cops look for when they want to pull you over..."modified exhaust" is the bullshit they use. After that they can and usually will pop your hood looking for shiny intake pipes or whatever looks modified.

I just recently i got my hood popped in my s14 kouki with a ka-t and I got a referee ticket. I was in a hot spot with a lot of CHP's running around on an operation to catch illegal mods so i just got pulled over for having modified exhaust where he proceeded to pop my hood. Before that incident I drove all around socal for years with a shiny full stainless apex'i N1 dual and a polished FMIC with no problems...i've had cops get behind me, pace me for a while and then pass me up.

After the ticket i painted my exhaust and FMIC black and so far I've gotten tailed by a CHP but I didn't get pulled over...for the most part you will be fine if you drive pretty mellow.

[Jared0934]

Thanks for the information so far guys, I guess it's pretty much the same crazy laws as for Okinawa, only cali acually has cops patrol and not just cameras doing all the dirty work.

OkiDori--> Yeah Nago Circuit has decent amount of races held there, I only go to the drift ones though, the track is too small even for a good drift course, nevermind time attack or anything else... They held a few drags there, the HKS sponsered drag was pretty sweet they had a lamborghini and ferrari up there. As far as the street races and night time nago drifting, that is pretty much kanked, cops had put cameras up in the spots that used to be hit and do routine patrols there. Also, if you need anything from here feel free to PM me I can send you whatever you need, I know you miss CoCo Ichiban! I heard cali has the only super auto bacs in the US though, San Diego rite? Is it the same as it is here?

Well I guess what I've learned so far, is it doesn't matter what you have done to your car, dont look like mr fast and furious with ricey stickers every where and dont drive like most assholes with turbos do, and you'll be good...

[roninwon]

its not illegal to do a motor swap it just needs to meet standards as other cars and its really easy for the military to bring over a car from what i understand all you need to do is get approval from your commander and then you need to pay to have the car shipped here which from what i hear is only like 1k and then the military will pay u back and then you got to go through all the steps to get the car registered which should be that hard

[Ex-ricer]

Motor swaps are legal as long as you are swapping in an engine to your vehicle that is from the same year or newer. E.G. a DOHC KA from a SOHC. Since SR's weren't available on our cars here in the states, it is not legal. But, it's not hard to get around that kind of stuff. Keep a KA and engine hoist on hand and you'll be fine ;)

As for CA roads vs. roads on base, the base has to follow both state and federal laws. Since CA is more strict than fed. laws, follow CA laws.

There are over 27000 violations in the California Vehicle Code. If a cop REALLY wants to give you a ticket, even if your car is stock there's something to ticket you with.

As for importing a car from overseas, every branch is a little different. Most branches will let you import a car if it passes Dept. of Trans. safety guidelines and are high enough in rank. If I remember correctly, officers can have more things shipped over than senior NCO's, senior NCO's more than junior grade NCO's, etc. Talk to your TMO office about it.

Good luck, devil dog.

[brndck]

California Department of Motor Vehicles (http://www.dmv.ca.gov/)
/thread

[Jared0934]

lol I am TMO :-/ I'd have to talk to the army about that one there the ones who run the port but last time i asked they reffered me to a japanese lady who didn't know what the hell i was talking about

[Ex-ricer]

Try talking to some of the Ch-Air Force rangers out there. They usually know what's what.

[OkiDori]

Thanks for the information so far guys, I guess it's pretty much the same crazy laws as for Okinawa, only cali acually has cops patrol and not just cameras doing all the dirty work.

OkiDori--> Yeah Nago Circuit has decent amount of races held there, I only go to the drift ones though, the track is too small even for a good drift course, nevermind time attack or anything else... They held a few drags there, the HKS sponsered drag was pretty sweet they had a lamborghini and ferrari up there. As far as the street races and night time nago drifting, that is pretty much kanked, cops had put cameras up in the spots that used to be hit and do routine patrols there. Also, if you need anything from here feel free to PM me I can send you whatever you need, I know you miss CoCo Ichiban! I heard cali has the only super auto bacs in the US though, San Diego rite? Is it the same as it is here?

Well I guess what I've learned so far, is it doesn't matter what you have done to your car, dont look like mr fast and furious with ricey stickers every where and dont drive like most assholes with turbos do, and you'll be good...

Aww yeah I still have a few friends who go to the drift events and they took a picture of keichi tsuchiya so i thought that was pretty cool. That sucks the cameras ruined a good thing.:cops: I remember growing up in yomitan and my friends used to drift on the deserted roads by the sugar cane and the patrol cars used to just sit there in the fields and watch haha. good old days. Is blue eye still open its by kadena gate 1? As far as parts, I'll let ya know. When do you come to cali btw?

[OkiDori]

Oh and my bad forgot to answer your Q's. There were two "Super Autobacs" one in West Co and the other in Stanton but they closed down. Then they re-opened under a new name. Basically they kept the "Super Auto" part and replaced it with "Toyz" so now it's "SuperAuto Toyz" They had a meet last week I didn't go, but I went to the grand opening meet Wired on Honda threw and it looked like the same stuff but its not like the one in Japan.
You know in Japan some people like the Altezza tail lights whereas here they like the jdm kouki ones. It's like girls who have straight hair want to have curly, and girls who have curly love to have straight hair. So sometimes ppl want what they cant have. So the Super Auto Toyz knows that the demographic here is into JDM, so okane-okane. Don't get me wrong they have the drift bible, car deodorizers, and of course parts but it just isnt the same but worth a visit =)

[Jared0934]

Yeah Tsuchiya was up here on the 12th, I think that slideshow was sponsered by auto bacs.... There was a huge crash rite next to where my boy was standing he thought he was going to die lol. As far as blue eye, i don't know what that is I've never been there/heard of it... I don't really hang around Kadena/Gate 2.... that's just asking for trouble, Nahashi is my spot :snoop:. I come to cali in the begining of April so if you see any nice rides for sale keep me posted! That's pretty retarded they named it SuperAuto Toyz... I'm not really a fan of that but whatever, my boy got married out here so he'll be here for 2 more years that will be my jdm goody hook up when im gone. lol okane-okane so da ne. lol do they have the weed deodorizors? lol I can't believe how many okinawans use those for there car and have no clue it is weed.... As my time gets closer to leave, I start to realize I think I will miss Oki when I'm gone :-/ especially jusco's import nights, i always knocked on Cuppacinos until a guy with a boosted one gave me a ride, those things really whip for a yellow plate!

As far as the thread goes, I found the KA-T forums through zilvia and been reading up there and I guess I underestimated the KA... these guys make KA's that are pretty damn nice, plus I heard performancebyMAX is coming out with a pretty nice turbo kit for the silvias that top mount the FMIC near your radiator... which will also help keep the cops off your ass like Spooled240 was saying.

[Jared0934]

Also, does anyone know of any forum sites in cali that are around the camp pendleton area?

[Ex-ricer]

I'd say that 90% of this site is SoCal.

[Jared0934]

that makes things easy then

[OkiDori]

Hey,
I never knew they had jusco import car meets haha awesome. they always just met up at family mart or lawson late at night before they went drifting or touge. Yea i saw a pics of an accident that my homegirl took too. I totally miss the cars in oki..omg. if i was there id get an s15.
As far as KA yeah ive got a few homies that drift but theyre on the eastcoast and they already went SR on their cars. Some people prefer KA its got better piston strokes and they can produce as much power as a sr when theyre build correctly. Its also a torque-y SOB.
I got my ride for sale. Moving on towards a new project. I've got 90% of the 5spd parts for sale too since its still automatic. the swap takes less than a day to do. The only thing that i am missing is the top part of the driveshaft. heres the ad, of course im willing to go lower its obo i just didnt want lil kid tire kickers and flakes thinking they can offer me 2grand or something ridiculous. Immaculate 1990 Nissan 240sx SE hatch (http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/cto/1439470824.html)

Check out garage boso when u come to cali, theyre a shop thats run by fellow oki ppl too. I myself havent had time to visit but i think ross petty runs it he used to live in oki and then moved to cali and now hes pretty big stuff here.
As far as weed deodorizers haha yeah you can buy them in j-town and possibly at a reggae store. I used to work at trade roots reggae in SD they used to sell a lot of reggae stuff and incense. And in forums. zilvia is the best, and one of my other homies from SD goes on SDdrift.com its not as big but they have weekly meets downtown.. Hope this helps!

[Jared0934]

hey i saw a tattoo shop yesterday near kadena called Blue Lion? Is that what you meant by Blue Eye lol. That's a clean ass 13 why sell? use it as a project you already started the tranny swap so obviously you were thinking about doing it, why the change of heart? They also slide up at the Bull Ring, you ever gone there? My buddy went to one onetime and someone snapping shots for Tengoku Drift got a pic with him way in the side hah.

[OkiDori]

You know the family mart by kadena gate one. well oretend ur heading toward kadena circle and u know that overpass bridge and right before the intersection theres a car dealership. it looks like an apartment building and its kinda on stilts well make a left into that small road and there will be the fence on the right keep heading down toward the sea wall and around that area is blu eye. or at least thats where it use to be. If its still there ask for chris hanson. idk if he works there nemore but i interned my senior year aT ken metz shop in 06 and he used to drive a r33 gts 2.5t. like i said idk if hes thre or if blue eye is there even but its a cool shop and chris is a cool guy.

[upsdude]

just don't move to cali if you want to have any type of modified car-more specifically a modified IMPORT.

[Jared0934]

hah well i'm not really moving there, im being sent there. im sure things will work out there for me im not too worried about that.