S4 Intrigue.............

[mark030358]

......................... I have bought an S4 first registered in Nov 69 to restore as it was last on the road in 1982. After stripping the car ready for a new chassis I was cleaning the remnants of the carpet glue off the passenger side tunnel and noticed the following:- 3056 Bahama. Also engraved on the drivers door are the digits 3056. And this number also appears in the engine bay on a "Dymo Tape" type label. So I presumed the 3056 was the unit number while the Bahama signified the colour the car was "going" to be.

So, heres where it gets a little strange. The car is Colorado Orange and always has been... even the paint under the front and rear screen rubbers is orange, and for sure the car has never been totally resprayed. Also the VIN number of my car is 36/9568 so what is that number 3056? Even stranger the vehicle registration document says the car is.... you guessed... Yellow.

Anyone with any ideas what the 3056 is?

cheers
Mark

ps there is one other dymo label in the engine bay ... it reads B7-1... any ideas.

[SADLOTUS]

Strange.... I also have digits engraved into the door, looks like a soldering iron did it, on the door is also the same Dymo tape number, I'm afraid the car's away at the moment so i can't tell you the number. Mine's an S4 '68. I never really knew what it was for, I assumed it was a mould number of some sorts. Be interesting to know what it was.

[garyeanderson]

Hi Mark
3056 is the body number, the doors, underside of the head lamp buckets, body, and probably the boot lid and bonnet all have the same numbers. All of these parts were fitted to the body shell for Lotus quality control. Are you sure its not 8056 or 9056? 45/8221 has 7260 for a body number

Gary

[nebogipfel]

If your car has had a proper paintjob at some time it could easily have left the factory Bahama ......... all traces of the original colour would be gone.

[mark030358]

Gary,
Nope its definatley 3056.... Is the body number supposed to match the VIN No?

This car has definatley never been yellow.. I'm a bit puzzled... maybe they ran out of paint???

[garyeanderson]

Matching numbers is for Chevrolet Corvettes, Lotus Elans are for fun. Matching numbers are not one of Lotus Elan's strong suits, take a look at
http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/viewtop ... 9319#69319 and look at the Excel file -
S1 Elans sorted by body number 01.xls
It wasn't until 1970 that lotus tried to get things to match up with there new VIN numbers.

Gary

[denicholls2]

So, heres where it gets a little strange. The car is Colorado Orange and always has been... even the paint under the front and rear screen rubbers is orange, and for sure the car has never been totally resprayed.

Orange your car probably is. Colorado Orange it may or may not be.

Most people consider "Bahama Yellow" to be orange. It is not, however, quite as orange as Colorado.

There are pictures on the web somewhere that will make this all clear. In any event, Bahama is downright orange compared to Lotus Safety Yellow.