Greetings from NYC! Moving to Perth!

[NYCyank]

Hello fellow Honda enthusiasts!

My name is Stephen and I'm from NYC over in the states. I have the opportunity to move to Perth and stay with a friend who has been living there for quite some time now. I am 30yrs old and have been building Honda's for the last 15yrs. I just wanted some feedback and what to expect in my move to Perth. I am also currently working at a Honda dealership here as a level A Technician, and would love to continue my career in Perth. What I would really love to do is become involved with a tuner shop there.

How is the scene?

Cost of parts..for example a B18C swap here goes for roughly $2,000-$2,500 USD.

What are the average wages for someone working as a Technician for a dealership?

I'm also concerned with how difficult it might be in order for me to obtain a driver's license??

Also...what's it like living in Perth? What should I know?


lastly, no introduction would be complete without showing you guys some photos! Here are the last 3 cars that I have built!

1000hp S2000:














800hp Integra:











400hp SOHC Civic my personal car:
















thanks for viewing!

[felixR]

Welcome to CITR

Norm, our resident Perth moderator will surely be able to answer at least some of your questions!

[gunpoons]

Welcome to Clubitr!
I can't comment on Perth from where I live but I'm pretty sure the winters will be a tad warmer.
And personally I'd stay in NYC, I fckn love that place
Nice cars by the way👍

[M@lew]

Welcome! Those cars are pretty crazy, you'll find Aus (espec Perth) to be very different to NYC!

[NYCyank]

In regards to staying here, I've been here 30yrs and I feel like I'm almost completely over it. Traffic, bad attitudes, crappy weather, and most importantly HORRIBLE ROADWAYS! and little to no access to motorsport. I've been made aware that Austrailia is rich in motorsport culture which really draws me to that side of the world!

[felixR]

Curious.. how did you choose Perth?

[butter]

Welcome to ClubITR! (and soon, Australia!)

Your 30 years experience is astounding which really reflects well in those cars you've built.
A 1,000HP S2000 would be terrifying to say the least! Truly a case of the "crazy stuff the guys in the states do". It's definitely not as common to see these sorts of builds happening here in Australia.

You and your friend should consider moving to the East Coast being Sydney or Melbourne! (Not biased at all, but you'll be closer to the OG's of ClubITR members :P) As mentioned, the friendliest guy in the world, Norm, resides in Perth however he will be moving to Melbourne in the coming months.

Will you be importing your Red Civic with you to Perth?

Also, hope you have a smooth transition moving to Australia! I think we're more friendlier and laid back compared to crazy busy NYC.

OH and watch out for them drop bears!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Welcome Stephen. The track/time attack scene is growing in Australia, not sure how the drag racing scene is nowadays though. I think a B18c2 (vti-R motor) goes for roughly 2k and b18c7 (audm type r motor) goes for roughly 4k, k20a package is around 5k+. Prices can vary a lot though.

Not sure how easy it is getting a license in Perth, but in Melbourne is pretty easy.

Not sure how it is living in Perth, but in Melbourne it's pretty good. We have many local tracks from Winton, Phillip island and NSW tracks are around 6-7hrs drive away from us, so it's not too bad.

But from what I can gather , cars in Australia are pretty expensive. I'm looking for an S2000 and they got for roughly 20k, whereas in America can be around the 10k ish mark?

Wow those cars are crazy. Awesome builds!

[gunpoons]

Greetings from NYC! Moving to Perth!

In regards to staying here, I've been here 30yrs and I feel like I'm almost completely over it. Traffic, bad attitudes, crappy weather, and most importantly HORRIBLE ROADWAYS!

That's fair enough, but trust me we to have all of the above as well, and trust me, you have no idea what horrible roadways are. If you'd like to see them come visit me in Northwest NSW, No such things as interstates out here!
I'm sure you'll love it though, great opportunity to see the other side of the world but do take into account that Perth is the most isolated major city in the world,
And Australia would be have to be the most politically correct, over controlled nanny state in the world,
But yeah it's great👍

[Lonewolf]

Welcome aboard, i've lived in Perth my whole life (also 30 years!), and been into cars for the last 10 or so.

Firstly, the weather here is pretty good (currently 26 degrees and sunny) but does get warm in summer - 40deg+ Centigrade.
Winters = some rain, not that cold for you, 1-2 degrees at night.

Some of the best beaches in the world if you're into that.
Perth is really quite a small laid back city, especially compared to somewhere like NY.
The bigger cities over east probably offer more job opportunities and motorsport just due to the number of people.

RE Traffic, its not too bad apart from the peak hour rushes at the start and end of each day, we dont have any tollways so you can drive anywhere, anytime for free.
Its quite a spread out city, what suburb will you be living in?

Police can be pretty hardcore, they will impound your car for certain violations, and like to "defect" your car if they think its illegally modified.
You can get an engineer to sign off on mods that arent dangerous though at a cost.

Motorsport wise, we have a drag strip (runs street meetings every wed night during the summer season), some small training tracks for circuit and one big track not far from the city.
There are monthly circuit track nights, as well as other more competitive events.

RE work: like i said its a relatively small city, quite a few honda dealerships about - but cant comment on wages i'm afraid.
Tuning wise - there are quite a few workshops around the place, cant say there are any that really specialise in Hondas, perth is a pretty Nissan centric tuner area (some toyotas too)

if you have any other queries let me know and i'll try and answer

[Beatz]

Hey Stephen, welcome to CITR!

I live in Perth, if you want to know about general lifestyle, the weather is warm or hot (Mediterranean climate), we're a relatively small city compared to most over east but we have been growing fast due to a mining boom in the past couple of years. As Lonewolf said, the roads aren't too bad, but I find that one annoying thing in Perth on the roads is nobody knows how to merge :P

If you want to look up jobs I'd head over to www.seek.com.au

If you have more questions don't be afraid to ask! I think it will be a big change from NYC for sure!

[Beatz]

Getting a driver's licence isn't too hard here also. Refer to this website

http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/licensing/20669.asp