Missing VIN

[PDXjunkman]

Hi There,
I am not one to believe in miracles but that might be changing. Last night I got a call from the wife of the former owner of my S1...the one with the missing VIN. She had searched the entire house, twice , and found the build plate!!! I drove the two hours this morning at 7am and have it in hand. The numbers are so hard to read but I can clearly see the unit number which is 3448. The engine number looks like it might say LP1244. On the line below the unit and engine number I can not make out the first sequence but can see the number that appears on my title which is 260507. The letters or numbers that preface this may be C11110 but that is a total guess as they are so faint. Any thoughts on what I am trying to see would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much.
Silas

[Elanintheforest]

Have another miracle, Silas.
Lotus used to run a day-book sales ledger, with one line entry for each car sold. Very few pages of this seem to exist now for Elans, but this is one I nabbed from somewhere...it may have been put up on here at sometime.

There's your car at the top of the page.....Unit 3448, Chassis 507, Engine Lp 1244, and it left the factory on 26th Feb '64 delivered to Ecurie Shirlee.

So not only have you got a stunning original car, but it's all matching numbers as well!

Mark

[PDXjunkman]

Wow Mark,
I am speechless to say the least. I never imagined that such documentation could exist. Since you seem to be performing miracles any thoughts on the original gold color?
Thanks a million for the info!!!
Silas

[paddy]

This is what mine looks like. I don't see anything like your C11110 number.

Paddy

[PDXjunkman]

Hi Paddy,
Mine looks different I will scan and try and post it.
Thanks Silas

[PDXjunkman]

Here is my VIN,
As you can see it is hard to read but the only numbers or letters I can't make out for sure are the ones on the bottom line.
Thanks so much.
Silas

[StressCraxx]

Congrats, PDX!

Your Elan was delivered to and sold by Bob Challman, owner of Ecurie Shirlee, in Manhattan Beach, CA. He was the West Coast Importer for Lotus Cars. If you search the archives for the name, you will also come across the display ads he commissioned for placement in Road and Track and Sports Car Graphic (now Car and Driver).

A very interesting character. If he did not like you, or you did not appear to have the means to buy and care for a Lotus, he would not sell you a car!

Dave Bean told us the story one night about his experience with Challman. Challman threw him out of his dealership! 20 years later, Challman walks into Bean's Lotus dealership in Santa Barbara, they exchange greetings, and Bean throws Challman out of his dealership.

Best regards,
Dan Wise

[Famous Frank]

WOW!!! It's better to be lucky than good. Congratulations!! What a find. Was that drive 2 hours one way? Well worth it.

Famous Frank

[billwill]

Here is my VIN,
As you can see it is hard to read but the only numbers or letters I can't make out for sure are the ones on the bottom line.
Thanks so much.
Silas

I think the bottom line just says CH NO 26 00507

Chassis Number 26 00507

[prezoom]

Had to laugh at Dan's post. I too had the same experience with Challman when I tried to buy a S7 back in 1963. Was told I was too young and couldn't handle the car. Wound up buying it when I was a "threat to aggression" in South East Asia and visiting Hong Kong. Bought it direct from the factory in kit form and had it shipped to the US, scheduled to arrive upon my discharge from the service.

After putting it together, I drove it up to Challman's, found him and gave him he one finger salute and walked out.

Met his daughter last year at the vintage races in Coronado and related the story to her.

Rob Walker
26-4889

[Elan45]

I would guess that Paddy's Elan was a kit Elan, not a factory built, drive it away Elan. That is why it has a Lotus Components tag. On the other hand, Silas car was a factory built car, since Elans were only available in the US market that way. I still have the original letter from Lotus East in 1966, replying to my request to buy an Elan kit. They sent along info on building a Seven kit, but Elans only came as complete cars.

Roger

[paddy]

I think mine was sold as a complete car, because I once saw the extract from the factory ledger and it shows only one invoice, instead of two (which was the case for the kits).

The plate clearly pre-dates the Elan because it lists lubricants for the Climax engine as well, but I have no idea if there was subsequently a different plate for fully built cars versus kits. I'm sure Mark knows

Paddy

[Bob]

Have another miracle, Silas.
Lotus used to run a day-book sales ledger, with one line entry for each car sold. Very few pages of this seem to exist now for Elans, but this is one I nabbed from somewhere...it may have been put up on here at sometime.

There's your car at the top of the page.....Unit 3448, Chassis 507, Engine Lp 1244, and it left the factory on 26th Feb '64 delivered to Ecurie Shirlee.

So not only have you got a stunning original car, but it's all matching numbers as well!

Mark

This is nothing to do with Lotus but missing bit motoring history in the same vain.

I use to work at the Daimler in Radford Coventry. One of the jobs I had was clearing out the old cellars, I found in there the original shares entry book. The third entry was Gottlieb Daimler about 1890 something.
I dont know what happend to the book. I wish I had have kept it.
Bob

[Elanintheforest]

Paddy, in the Elite world, the Lotus Components plate is understood to be a kit build, and the Lotus Cars plate a factory build....but nobody is 100% certain!

It seems that within a few months of the Elan coming out, so maybe by the middle of '63, the plate was standardised to the 'Cheshunt' plate for both factory and kit built cars. But the Elite was made alongside the Elan for a while, so I wouldn't be surprised with any early (ish) S1 having a Lotus Components plate, a Lotus Cars plate or a Cheshunt plate, irrespective of it being factory built or kit built.

And Bob, I dread to think of the stuff that's been thrown away along with the Brit car industry in the past 40 years or so. I bought a binder full of drawings off eBay a few years ago that a guy had rescued from GKN, when they were clearing out in the late 70s. It consists of 70 or so drawings for the prototype Jaguar XJS bodyshell, with some fantastic detail, and quite different to the production car. Nobody else seemed to want it on eBay either....I think I paid ?20 for the lot.

Back to Lotus, I understand that most of the early production and sales records were thrown out when the company moved from Cheshunt to Norwich....only the stuff required to be kept for 'n' years by the tax guys was kept.

Mark

[paddy]

Paddy, in the Elite world, the Lotus Components plate is understood to be a kit build, and the Lotus Cars plate a factory build....but nobody is 100% certain!

I'm sure I saw the relevant ledger extract on this site, but can't find it anywhere now.

Paddy