i was going to import cars some time ago.

few things

to make a car a "parts car" means it cant be drivable. I dont know why people think you have to pull all this shit out, you dont, simply pull a steering wheel, seats, wheels and now its a parts car.

to import a car for race purpose, its not really so much about the races they look for you to attend, its the fact that the car has to be 100% race car before deportation, and has to show it. full cage, full aero, built motor, etc.

you can also import a car for show purposes, this actually does give you permission to drive it a few thousand miles a year, but basically you have to explain the relevance of the car on why it would make a difference with it being imported. I.E. you might get away importing a 1 off car like a tommykira R skyline bc it was such a limited production car, etc, so you COULD disconnect the speedo and drive it more if you wanted, not legal in the sense, but do able.

next is the whole kit car thing, ive already been to the DMV sometime ago and checked on it, if they didnt change the rules, then it should be the same. basically you have to give a make of a chassis, body kit, headlights, taillights, motor and you take that in, if you made your own chassis, then you list that. they dont even inspect the car for kit car purposes. so this is the 1 loop hole i found to be the easiest. Make a cage, weld on support beams and say you made the chassis, buy a bomex kit, say it was hand made fiberglass, find a similar power plant motor and say you used that, etc etc. This way, technically, when you imported the car for "parts only" you could still say you did, but then later installed the kit, made the according chassis modifications, etc. and there really isnt shit they can do about it.

lastly and the most expensive, is going thru the crash testing on various cars. i was going to start importing cars in which they made here, such as integras, CRX SiRs etc so stuff like lights and glass were easy to switch over to USA standards since the same product is made here. You could import cheaper cars legally for not such a big investment, say, 3 pulsar GTiRs crashed is about $3k each, total investment might cost you $15k to legalize, but then you could legally import them, make your money and work up to a better car.