Basic unit number plate question

[groucho]

Surely this information is easily available somewhere but it's probably so obvious that I can't seem to find it.

In amongst a bunch of other work I'm doing on my car at the moment, I decided to take a closer look at the number plate for my car. It's not been attached as long as I've owned it (~16 years) and I've never been able to decipher the chicken scratch etchings on it.

Well, I finally took the time to put some aluminum cleaner on it and clean it up a little (at the risk of removing a little bit of the markings), and I can finally, more or less, read the numbers. 4461 is apparently the elusive unit number. It's registered as 2461, which is understandable if you can see the very swoopy first "4", which looks more like a 2 and less like the 4 that follows it.

Anyway - my question is, underneath the unit number is what I believe says "US 65 CH No. 26/4461".

Is it safe to assume that the "US" stands for "United States" and "65" means that it's officially a 1965 model?

Now that it's cleaned up, maybe I'll actually attach it to the car!

And no, I have absolutely no idea why there's a big notch cut out of the plate. I can only assume that someone felt that something had to be bolted there and there was no alternative but to just slice the thing up!

[trw99]

You are correct. Your car was fitted with engine no LP 2846 (you can just make out the number on the VIN plate) and it left the production line on 20 April 1965.

Tim

[groucho]

You are correct. Your car was fitted with engine no LP 2846 (you can just make out the number on the VIN plate) and it left the production line on 20 April 1965.

Tim

Almost right on the engine - it's actually LP 2946 according to the etching. I'm fitting a Burton water pump at the moment and am going to double check the stamping on the engine while I'm at it; I am quite sure it's still the original engine.

How are you able to get the production date? Any listings I've seen have been fairly approximate, unless you are able to get the info directly from Lotus... which I may ask about, just out of curiosity. Supposedly mine started life as a red on red car; unfortunately the red interior was thrown away at some point in the '70s.

[trw99]

Groucho

The records show engine no 2846 against your car. It would be interesting to know what you find scribed on the engine. The 9 may be a typo - either on the VIN plate or on the records.

Records for most Elans, though not all, do exist at the factory. Those for earlier cars have little info and colour tends not to be amongst it. Later S4 and Sprint colours were recorded more diligently. The date against most cars is listed as 'Date of Invoice' or 'Date Built'; there is no differentiation. Generally we take it to be the date the car was signed off from production.

Tim

[groucho]

Groucho

The records show engine no 2846 against your car. It would be interesting to know what you find scribed on the engine. The 9 may be a typo - either on the VIN plate or on the records.

Looks like the records are wrong:

It's amazing what you find when you clean some of the decades of grime off the engine.

[trw99]

There you go, typo on the records!

Thanks for the clear up!

Tim

[LotusArchives]

Tim,

Sorry to have to correct you as I am not sure what records you are using, but the Lotus records clearly show LP2946LBA.

You are correct with your guess Groucho, the US = US market and 65 as a 1965 model.

It was sold from Lotus on the 20th April 1965 to Span Inc. I don't have a location for that dealer, but considering the US65 VIN I would assume in the US somewhere??

Andy Graham

Lotus Archives

[groucho]

You are correct with your guess Groucho, the US = US market and 65 as a 1965 model.

It was sold from Lotus on the 20th April 1965 to Span Inc. I don't have a location for that dealer, but considering the US65 VIN I would assume in the US somewhere??

Andy Graham

Lotus Archives

Thank you very much Andy! The car is registered as a 1966 with "2461" as the VIN - I don't think it's worth the trouble to go back and fix it now.

I can probably scrounge up the dealer name - this was Tony Vaccaro's (current Lotus Ltd president) first Lotus and he has some stories about its past. It led a rather messy life for its first few years! I'm not sure if it was actually sold to someone originally or just beat on by kids working at the dealership. I know its history from some point in the early '70s forward. I think it's been in New York pretty much its entire life.

Unfortunately progress has been extremely slow; I'm one good weekend day away from pulling the engine and cleaning it up properly and doing a bunch of other improvements to get it back better than it's been in years.

[trw99]

[quote="LotusArchives"]Tim,

Sorry to have to correct you as I am not sure what records you are using, but the Lotus records clearly show LP2946LBA.

You are correct with your guess Groucho, the US = US market and 65 as a 1965 model.

It was sold from Lotus on the 20th April 1965 to Span Inc. I don't have a location for that dealer, but considering the US65 VIN I would assume in the US somewhere??

Andy Graham

Lotus Archives[/quote]

I duly stand corrected! The typo clearly exists my end. Thanks Andy.

By the way, I now have some information on Span Inc. They were the Chicago based Elva and Lotus dealer throughout most of the 1960s. Jim Spencer was their main man; he became known for dealing in and racing the Yenko Stingers.

Tim