A GREAT CYPRUS PROBLEM...PLEASE READ AND COMMENT

[ae86 cyprus]

MY DEAR FRIENDS,
please comment on the following:

in cyprus, we (car enthusiasists) face one great problem: we are only allowed to import cars that are 5 years old or newer. Not only that, but we are charged with a tax, the so called "consumption tax" which is paid just as soon as the car is registered! this tax is put according to the displacement, for example, the tax for a hachi should be 1600CYP (2000euro but still im not allowed such an import), for a skyline 2500CYP (4000 euro) and for a land cruiser more than 4300CYP (6000 euro!) its the only country in the world with such a tax, with only reason our government to make money! its not enough that they overcharge pertol prices! today we pay 1 euro per litre!

and while this happens, there are cars which have no insurance, no exhausts, no number plates, with emmisions 300% higher than allowed, trucks with no lights, buses with no belts! we also have turkish cypriot people coming from the other invaded cypriot land, who have no lights, insurance, licence, belts or anything! recently i saw a turkish cypriot taxi driver who was putting tape around the T on his plates, just to cancel out the TAXI, which the car is meant to be! unbelievable!

Another problem we face, is street racing! the means of mass information (tv, the papers) say that people who tune their cars kill themselves and others, that they are danger to innocent people and tuning is NOT allowed by our very very skillful policemen, who measure a car's dbs with their ears, or measure the height with their eye, even know how much you are speeding just by listening! we, cypriots, fight every day in order to get permission to start building a drag strip!

a strip which will be only 1000m long, 12m wide, and comply to all FIA regulations! everything is almost ready but we cant get the permission of the government! THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO THAN STREET RACING THEN! with no regulations, no nothing! but why? what did we cypriots do to deserve this? In USA, road accidents were reduced even by 65% when tracks were built in the different states. We are a small island, 150 km in max diameter, and we can't have ONE STRIP OF 1OOOM! WHY?