UK has rubber gearstick gaitor (import leather), plastic gear knob (import leather), vinyl on door cards (import material) Uk cars miss the umbrella's in the doors (being late 92 early 93 iirc) plastic steering wheel (import leather) different clocks, different bootlid (for uk long plate) etc

I much prefer the bits on the UK car though as I hate the nasty floppy leather gaitor and knob on the imports.

Obviously theres a few other things the imports have.. folding mirrors etc.

Pretty sure there's no mechanical difference

Stage 1 is reliable as hell, had mine 2 years at 1 bar and was sweet as a nut the whole time.. that was 4 years ago I sold it and last time I saw it the engine was still going strong (and it had 90k miles on it then) bodywork on the imports is the problem.

If he gets an import make sure it's a fresh import and get it cleaned up underneath and waxoiled up. If it's been here a while it'll either be rusting on the rear arches or on it's way to.