Below you can read a brief introduction to our country, covering its location, history and basic information about cars and motoring in Estonia, including the US car scene.

Estonia is a small country in Northeastern Europe. Its territory is about 45 000 sq km or around 17 000 square miles and the population is about 1.4 million, of which about 65% are Estonians and 30% Russians. The official language is Estonian and the local currency is "kroon" (EEK). 1 EEK is currently worth roughly 7 US cents, or $1 = 13.4 EEK.

The capital city is Tallinn, with a population of about 450 000. For what it's worth, Tallinn is about 1800 km / 1200 miles from London and about 8000 km / 5000 miles from New York. We are about as far North as Anchorage, Alaska. The average temperature here is about 19 C / 66 F in July, -4 C / 25 F in January.

The Estonian people have been under foreign rule since the early 13th century, when these regions were conquered by the Germans. All the way to the early 20th century Estonia was under the rule of Germans, Swedes, Danes or Russians. On February 24th, 1918, however, Estonia declared independence and eventually managed to defeat the Russian and German forces challenging this independence. Both Russia and Germany were weakened by World War I, but it's still neat to think that we kicked their ass :) February 24th is now celebrated as our national holiday.

This independence was unfortunately shortlived as Estonia was occupied by Soviet forces in 1939. I guess you can imagine that it wasn't really fun to be a part of Soviet Union for some 50 years, but eventually that monster fell apart and Estonia regained its independence in August 1991. Since then it has become a nice democratic and almost civilized :) European state, even though the living standards aren't quite up to par with the Western world yet - the average monthly income is about $500.

Further information and a map of the region are available offsite.

The very first car was driven on Estonian roads in late 1896 - it was a '94 (1894, that is) Benz-Velo. The first passenger cars started appearing in the early 1900s and it is believed that sometime in 1908 an American-made car (a Ford) was seen in Estonia for the first time. It could just be a coincidence, but the same year the first traffic regulations were adopted in Estonia :) Amongst other things, the regulations provided for right-hand traffic, like in most of the world today. By 1940, there were about 3600 cars in Estonia, almost half of which were American cars.

During the Soviet occupation, one had to settle for Soviet cars, which by the late 1970s were 10 or more years behind western cars in technology and design. Estonia was the most "European" part of the USSR and had the highest number of cars per capita in the Soviet Union, but imported cars were quite rare even here. By the end of the Soviet era, there were about 125 cars per 1000 persons in Estonia. This figure increased rapidly once the borders opened and used cars started pouring in, mostly from Germany, and the first dealerships were opened. We now have some 300 cars per 1000 persons. The bigger European countries are currently at about 500 and the US has more than 700 passenger cars for every 1000 persons.

All these cars aren't good for the roads, which are mostly in very poor shape. This means that it is alarmingly often wise to follow the posted speed limits, which are usually 50 km/h (a little over 30 mph) in cities and 90 km/h (55 mph) on highways. The normal flow of traffic is usually 5-8 mph faster than permitted :)

Another great concern for car enthusiasts and other people who drive a lot is, of course, fuel prices. Premium gas costs around 75 US cents a liter, or about $2.50 a gallon. Various taxes make up more than 60% of that price :(

When people started looking abroad for cars in the early 90s, it was only natural that some of them were lured by the looks, sound and power of genuine American iron. Since the import regulations were relatively relaxed at the time, quite a few cars entered the country, most of them 3rd gen Camaros/Firebirds and Fox-body Mustangs, but also a few C4 Corvettes, vans and some larger sedans and STWs. Since price was the most important consideration, virtually no classic muscle cars or late model V8 cars were imported. However, there were also people for whom money was less of an issue, and thus we even have a '94 Viper RT/10 here in Estonia.

As the economic situation improved, more 90s cars began showing up, most of them SUVs, with the Jeep Grand Cherokee being the most popular, followed by Chevy Tahoe and Ford Explorer. Fortunately, some performance rides also made it here, so we now have a couple of Impala SS-s and LT1 Camaros, two LS1 Camaros, a '99 WS6 Trans Am, a few late-model 5.0 Mustangs and a C5 Vette.

The possibilities for importing US cars became a lot more limited during the second half of the 90s, when further registration of US-spec cars was forbidden and the taxation on importing used large-displacement cars reached a level that could only be characterized as insane. For example, if one wanted to import an 80s small-block car, the taxes would amount to more than $4,000… Initially, cars older than 25 years were tax exempt, but only a few US cars were imported under this rule before the limit was changed to 35 years. The lobby of FWD half-block econobox importers at work…

The taxes have since been abolished, but due to technical regulations the registration of US-spec cars less than 25 years old is still extremely difficult. Nevertheless, there are far more American cars here in Estonia than listed above - some cars from the 60s, several full-size cars, a few 2nd gen F-bodies, a couple of C3 Vettes and even some classic muscle and pony cars: several early Mustangs and a '70 Olds 442. Still, the difficulties in getting more cars into the country are a serious impediment to our hobby.

So what do we do with the cars we have? First of all, we try to modify them. Most late-model cars are stock, but especially some of the older cars have undergone engine swaps and simpler bolt-on mods, with a few more extensive projects completed or underway as well. This is made difficult by the scarcity and cost of parts, the prices here roughly doubling after shipping and taxes.

A US Car Meet takes place every summer and there have also been a few small-scale cruising and tire-smoking events during the last few years. The US Car Club has been revived after a period of inactivity.

New car sales are also increasing with Chrysler, Jeep, Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicles being more and more prominently featured in various media.

Hopefully we'll be able to see a lot more action and exciting cars in the future.

The most natural thing to do with an American performance car is, of course, taking it to the strip. One small problem, we don't have any strips :) Nevertheless, we have had some drag races, at first only one a year, now up to five or more, taking place on closed-off streets or abandoned military airstrips (the one useful thing the Russian forces left behind).

At first we lacked proper timing equipment, but starting with 2003, the system developed locally here in Estonia has been working nearly flawlessly and has even been used to carry out the first proper drag race in our neighbouring country, Latvia.

That's a good thing, too, because the cars here are getting faster and faster, from 13s in the late 1990s to 12s in 2001 and now mid-10s during the 2003 season. The fastest cars in the country are two big-block Camaros, an '82 with NOS with a personal best of 10.4 and a naturally aspirated '79 running low 11s. There are also a couple of European/Japanese turbocharged cars running high 11s/low12s.

The drag races have been popular to the point of the public being a nuisance, with some 20 000 spectators at some races, sometimes wandering too close to the strip to continue the race. On the other hand, it shows that drag racing and V8 performance have a very bright future here in Estonia, once the economic situation improves and restrictions on importing the cars are lifted.