Registering a USA Elan in UK

[William2]

I am rebuilding an Elan S4 Federal USA LHD car that I bought a few months ago from a guy who bought the car back with all his other possessions to the UK about 18 years ago. Unfortunately the car came with no paperwork and in particular no import documentation to prove that VAT was paid at the time. When I come to register it for use in UK I know that I will need to get it MOT'd, insured and produce a letter from Lotus Cars proving that the car was manufactured in 1971 as per the VIN plate (I now have this letter). Also I will need to complete the relevant DVLA form. I am also converting the car to RHD and the car came with all parts to do this.
What concerns me is that the DVLA at Swansea seem somewhat vague as to whether the lack of import paperwork will be a problem or not and say that I will have to contact Customs and Excise.
Has anyone any experience of registering USA cars in the UK?

[elanfan1]

DVLA records of older cars or should I say have been off the road for years are poor and unless you tell them about the import there is little way that they would know. I should treat it as though you have rebuilt a barn find that lost its identity.

Just MOT it on the VIN, fill out the appropriate form and apply for an age related number/ registration for the car. Job done.

If you insist on being 'correct' about it all I can't see how they could expect you to produce documentation from 18 years ago and documentation that would have been issued to the owner at the time. Also when these come in on the dockside I feel sure that Customs don't just let them through without paying the duty - so I would have thought on the balance of probability that the duty has already been paid. Further isn't import duty 5% of the value - the car needing restoration probably wasn't worth ?1000 20 years ago (seems mad now doesn't it!) so the duty would be about ?50. I can't see them persuing the previous owner for that.

[AussieJohn]

I would have thought that all duties and taxes should have been sorted at the time of import otherwise the government would never attract any taxes if say you decided to race it and never road register it.

[Mazzini]

The car wouldn't have been released unless the taxes were paid.

I've re-imported a couple of ex-UK RHD cars from the US, it's not complicated to register them.

[William2]

Many thanks for your reassurances. I think I will just keep quiet about it's history.