trw99 wrote:Interesting point Robert.
I looked up unit 26/4891 and according to Lotus records it's build date was 21 July 1965.
The certificate states the car had 879 miles on it at the time of testing, which to my eyes was in 1968. The service department did carry out repairs, warranty claims and ordinary services on customer cars as well as the factory cars used by employees. My assumption would be that this car was low mileage, little used and perhaps was sent to Lotus for service and 'recommissioning' prior to sale.
Tim
26/4891 was bought new by the late Roy Bacon, my avatar photo is of him taking delivery of the car after, I suspect, it had been built by a local garage in Brightlinsea, Essex. Roy owned the car for just under forty years. Being an engineer he kept most of the original paperwork and along with the Elan Test Certificate is a Warranty Certificate and an invoice from the Lotus Service Department for the cars five hundred mile service - the job was started on the 7th September 1965 and paid for on the 9th. I can post scans if anybody is interested, but I think it's conclusively '65 and not '68.
For it's 500 mile service Roy complained that the car suffered from water leaks (hoho) but he didn't complain about the ripples above both rear wheel arches. Forty-eight years later the car was at Option 1 for a repaint, Frank stripped the paint off and found that the gel coat was thin in that area and the ripples were caused by the sill lattice stiffener rods showing through! There was no trace of accident repair work so it must have been like that from new. The bonnet on the 4891 is very heavy, I suspect by the time they got to the end of the shell they were running short of materials.