I'm not so sure on this personally. I was thinking of taking the missus and I over for a 12-month sabbatical (in which case we could private import TWO cars), but I've looked into this in some detail, to find;
* To my knowledge, despite an FTA between Aus and US, we still pay duty on car imports from the U.S
* (and here's the big one) customs will actually assess your taxes and duties based on your ORIGINAL purchase price, not on a 'depreciated asset' price at the time of import.
* As you still need to convert it to RHD, whilst you can avoid RAWS loopholes, try finding a reputable workshop who can do a quality mirror conversion. My quote.....$30K (that's right, only saving $5-10K on normal RAWS price).
* In the first several months, everyone is expecting these things to fetch way over sticker (MSRD) price. I think MSRD is set at $103K USD, so dealers are being tipped to get as high as $115K, at least for the first 18 months whilst they have pent up demand and oversupply has not taken effect.
* Lastly, there are as many FOREX 'experts' tipping downside risk to the AUD/USD exchange rate as upside.
What this means is, if you went stateside and paid $125K USD drive away for such a beast (and I don't think you can just store the thing, I am told DOTARS do some pretty significant research to verify you've been domiciled continuously for 12 months in the U.S), by the time you imported it, you're up for $130K AUD, plus container shipping, plus 10% duty (??), plus GST, plus LCT over and above $57K, plus $30K mirror conversion and on and on - likely to be a $230K AUD import. By this time, you'd probably be better off just importing straight from the states, because the $5K or so you save by skipping RAWS would be blown away firstly by depreciation, secondly by opportunity cost (whatever else you could have invested in), and thirdly by the 'unforgiving' customs charges as they would be based on your original purchase price.
For my money, you'd be much much better off buying a Z06 (Lingenfelter or Hennessy mod job even better!), which are now common as ar*eholes over there, whereby you can probably get a good Cali or AZ model for circa $60K and - because you have less exposure to LCT, would end up costing more in the range of $125K AUD. In fact, by the time you had your ZR1 here, I reckon you'd have the Z06 down to $110K. Still, because of the issue around taxes being based on transaction price, it is actually fraught with risk for any depreciating vehicle. Given this, we're now tending towards something which may not even be a RAWS vehicle at all - have the market all to one's self. Stretch Hummer anyone?
But back on topic......this is a ridiculously mad car and frankly, I can't wait to take one for a spin (lol).....(dreams of turning up at a dealership in 90210 dressed in Mick Dundee cork swagger hat....looks to Z06....'that's not a sportscar'......looks to ZR1....'now that's a sportscar'. I'll probably just end up getting mugged and being left destitute on the west saeeed).
BTW - if I have my info incorrect, I would appreciate the advice, as I am looking to depart in Feb next year!