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Toronto area Roadster racing

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I actively wrenched or raced from the late 80's. Porsche, Prodrive and M/McLaren. Got out 10 years ago and now I am just playing in my spare time. I don't believe a roadster would be a good base for any particular racing, its heavy and has software written to protect it from serious track work. As a daily driver its fun and does not have the snobbery of something like racing a Lotus. I have always found the Boxster crowd very friendly and helpful, especially as you can bolt in anything from a Audi 4 or 8 cyl to a LS3 and now even a tesla motor. Roadsters are also heavy beasts with a poor battery pack in terms of chemistry, weight and available/stored energy. Its pretty much well matched to the motor so it works but unlike other Electric Vehicles the car is a one box unit. No separate charging unit, no separate BMS, no separate controller. Everything is controlled by the PEM which has 3 CAN bus and is far from deciphered and no known entity has fully mapped out the complex coding, the model S on the other hand is well understood along with the Volt and Prius and easily controlled with a can bus transmitter. Most Roadster owners except for one have enough trouble keeping the vehicle in perfect condition, there is very little / no support if you bend break or burn something,
 
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I actively wrenched or raced from the late 80's. Porsche, Prodrive and M/McLaren. Got out 10 years ago and now I am just playing in my spare time. I don't believe a roadster would be a good base for any particular racing, its heavy and has software written to protect it from serious track work. As a daily driver its fun and does not have the snobbery of something like racing a Lotus. I have always found the Boxster crowd very friendly and helpful, especially as you can bolt in anything from a Audi 4 or 8 cyl to a LS3 and now even a tesla motor. Roadsters are also heavy beasts with a poor battery pack in terms of chemistry, weight and available/stored energy. Its pretty much well matched to the motor so it works but unlike other Electric Vehicles the car is a one box unit. No separate charging unit, no separate BMS, no separate controller. Everything is controlled by the PEM which has 3 CAN bus and is far from deciphered and no known entity has fully mapped out the complex coding, the model S on the other hand is well understood along with the Volt and Prius and easily controlled with a can bus transmitter. Most Roadster owners except for one have enough trouble keeping the vehicle in perfect condition, there is very little / no support if you bend break or burn something,
I appreciate your detailed response. I’m not looking for a racing machine, just to use it on the track exclusively for several years, to keep it in motion, until the vehicle is drivable on roads. There is a 15 year import ban on newer vehicles that dont meet specific criteria, so if it’s less then 15 years old, it can’t be driven on roads until it’s old enough. If there is a group of people racing them locally, it would make this time period much more fun.
 
I know of a few early roadster waiting to come over in 5 years.
I don’t know it you will be except from I’m/he speedo though. If you are then I guess there will be a lot crossing the border in 3 years. If I were looking for that I would be thinking of a 2008 for the more robust PEM. The issue would be the TMPS with better racing wheels/tires. I know when I registered my Porsche as a race only vehicle ( for transport across the border without hassle) I would have to jump through many many hoops to register it fit for the road again, thankfully I’m making it electric so it’s not ever going to be able to be registered in Ontario.
 
I know of a few early roadster waiting to come over in 5 years.
I don’t know it you will be except from I’m/he speedo though. If you are then I guess there will be a lot crossing the border in 3 years. If I were looking for that I would be thinking of a 2008 for the more robust PEM. The issue would be the TMPS with better racing wheels/tires. I know when I registered my Porsche as a race only vehicle ( for transport across the border without hassle) I would have to jump through many many hoops to register it fit for the road again, thankfully I’m making it electric so it’s not ever going to be able to be registered in Ontario.
At 15year mark, you can import JDM with steering wheel on right side, all bets are off, the speedo thing is not an issue then. When I imported a car in the early 2000 from the states, I never updated the speedo as it showed the km in the smaller numbers. I doubt that has changed as most exotics on trader are US and all have km in the small numbers and mph as the main numbers on the dial.
 
Good to know. There is a list of acceptable vins from the states. I’ll ask my local service if they can covert it. Seems like a trivial thing to change thr soeed dial from mph to kmh.
you say to go for 2008 over 2010,2011 and 2012?
Local service said they still service it, but I can see that getting worse in time.
 
Sadly no, no such luck. There are no km/hr speedo’s available. A lot of us have been down this path. The 2008-2009 was not permitted because of this along with no airbag and the insurance wanted a different immobilizer so the CAN version had a different door lock module with an immobilizer. The air bag sticker is a trivial thing, most testers will not know the roadster is different from US to CAN on the immobilizer. The Speedo can be cured by pulling it apart and putting MPG cover on at a push. You cannot just swap in a km/hr Speedo either. The VMS does not like it, the car needs to be reprogrammed with the new Speedo, and no one in Canada can do that. I have a healthy relationship with Mississauga SC and they are scared to pull my valet code in case something goes wrong. They simply no longer have the software to do anything other than diagnose.
 
I think that you are wrong about changing the speedo. I changed mine from kmh to a new mph one and it was plug and play, the previous km odometer reading converted to mileage automatically (apparently this info is stored in the ESS, not the cluster). I know someone else over here who did the same. I had looked at changing the faceplate but the needle is stuck firmly onto the spindle and I could not remove it. I consulted an expert in speedometer overhaul but he was concerned that the drive motor might be damaged by removing the needle and he could not source a replacement. I therefore coughed up for a brand new mph unit from Tesla. As you say, new kmh ones are sold out. I have one though!
 
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I wonder if the cars are happy to have a brand new one fitted but throw up codes if a used one with a different odometer reading is fitted. Or perhaps the one you know about threw codes for a completely different reason? There have been two or three versions of the cluster over time that would not be compatible with each other (original had RPM rather than a power meter)
 
I spoke to RIV today, and CBSA.
I was inquiring if a vehicle thats not in the VIN range could be brought into the country.
If a vehicle is in Canada, RIV is OK to allow for registration once it meets the 15 year limitation. In such a case they are not in charge of importing it so they deferred me to CBSA to insure It would be allowed across the border.
Then I called CBSA to see if they would allow for the vehicle to come into Canada and sit in a garage for 4 years while it awaits registration.
Sadly you cannot import a vehicle thats less then 15 years old, even as a paper weight. I can pinpoint someone to exact documentation.

i did ask about exceptions 62-64, for competiton vehicles as well. Thats a no go unless either:
- vehicle is labelled by manufacturer that its for closed circuit racing
- accompanied by a written declaration from a racing sanctioning body with regards to the vehicle classification as a competition vehicle
 
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I forgot what I had to do with my last car but it was already licensed with a RAC rally log book (yes I’m old) and the new car is now declared a 25.5 NHRA chassis. Declaring it as a race vehicle is a slippery slope.
as the the cluster, same type but used clusters, the milage is stored in vms and cluster and have to match, I assume a new one is unwritten but that’s a moot point as the last one is in London ontario now.
 
I forgot what I had to do with my last car but it was already licensed with a RAC rally log book (yes I’m old) and the new car is now declared a 25.5 NHRA chassis. Declaring it as a race vehicle is a slippery slope.
as the the cluster, same type but used clusters, the milage is stored in vms and cluster and have to match, I assume a new one is unwritten but that’s a moot point as the last one is in London ontario now.
This is quite a chore and process it seems. The idea behind this was to import a european roadster, which is much better priced, I suspect the car culture there isn’t as strong, or lags.
 
Other than the cost to actually ship is 5-10 times higher right now it’s possibly the smartest way to go. I have a few containers waiting to get on a boat but I’m in no rush. Even my best friend who owns the warehouse they sits in refuses to ship until it becomes financially viable. I have all my TVR engines going one way and getting my RS500 finally delivered to Canada after it being resting for 20 years (another car I left behind because it was worth nothing, now it’s become a classic) but it’s been a terrible year to ship anything.
 
Other than the cost to actually ship is 5-10 times higher right now it’s possibly the smartest way to go. I have a few containers waiting to get on a boat but I’m in no rush. Even my best friend who owns the warehouse they sits in refuses to ship until it becomes financially viable. I have all my TVR engines going one way and getting my RS500 finally delivered to Canada after it being resting for 20 years (another car I left behind because it was worth nothing, now it’s become a classic) but it’s been a terrible year to ship anything.
If I have to keep it in europe for the 4 years I could. I am a bit concerned about the need to have it plugged in, and keeping it close to a service center for whatever maintenance is required for that time period. Also wouldn’t ship until those cost stabilized. Like I said before, no hurry, don’t even mind tracking it only for 4 years if I can get a letter from a sanctioned body it’s for the track. Is that far fetched or possible? RIV confirmed it’s no issue to do that process when the vehicle turns 15 years old. CSBA said if it’s accompanied with said letter, they would let it pass thru customs.
 
Traditionally, There’s “show and display” or bringing the imported car into compliance in the US prior to 25yr rule. These are usually reserved for high dollar exotics but Tesla roadsters are quickly approaching that status. Currently, tesla classic roadster is not on that list.


I’m not sure if this is an option for CAN? I’m also not sure if it’s even an option for US since it was produced and sold in US 2008-2011?