Once I'd negotiated a price on the yellow 911T and arrange to transfer funds to the dealer, the next stage was retrieving it from Florida and getting it to West Sussex. I assumed this was a process full of pitfalls, and that I'd end up bruised, helpless and penniless in the face of overwhelming customs bureaucracy. In fact, I almost resigned myself to face the probability that car and money would disappear into a mid-atlantic hole and all I'd be left with was a good story.
Actually nothing could be further from the truth, importing the car was more or less completely painless. A shipping company had been recommended to me by a number of sources, so I gave them a phone call. And that's pretty much all I did do, once Allan at Kingstown Shipping had the car's details and some paperwork, he arranged everything; the collection of the car from New Smyrna Beach, transport to a port, loading onto a ship and then delivery to Southampton.
He even sorted out the customs paperwork, and was able to take advantage of a ruling that allows 'historic' vehicles to be imported on a lover rate of VAT; 5%. A rare thing that; an old Porsche bill that's smaller than you expect....
So several weeks later in early March I received an email letting me know the ship, complete with the car, had arrived, and a few days after that I was standing on a windswept quay looking at a tired old 911 and wondering what the hell I'd done.
Luckily there was a nice man there with a trailer ready to whisk it away.
Next: on the road again.
SS7
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