miked wrote:So Alan, are you saying that the route you mention with a bitser car will get you on the road as an S2, S3 S4 (whatever) but without a trial back to Lotus and a car original details. Just the right log book details and age related. Do they give you a chassis plate number then? In effect, the birth of an Elan with no past. If so, a future buyer that tries to trace the history finds out is was a reberth which affects it's future value and upsets them. Is that not the reason that these exchange hands with a value. Am I being thick here.
Mike
Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive
Hi Mike,
No, you are not being thick, maybe just falling into a common sort of trap / path that sometimes happens with the best of intentions. You really cannot legitimately use the V5 identity that is being offered for sale, although there are some who will use it as a shortcut from doing it properly. Even if this is legal (which I doubt), it's at least morally wrong to apply an existing identity to a vehicle made from parts that did not originally carry that identity on the major portion of the parts used. For us Elan owners that major portion is the body shell which is universally recognised as carrying the identity allocated by Lotus on first manufacture.
Don's S2 has a legitimate Lotus allocated unit number and has a chassis plate in the engine bay. The identity of the shell was traced to do this, it came from an S2 supplied as a kit that was originally built as a race car and never road registered, the rest of the car was assembled from original parts that Don collected over the years.
As there was no original registration applied to Don's car the only option for the DVLA to register it was to apply an age related number plate. If the kit had been originally road registered then there would have been the possibility of retaining the original number plate if it was still available. Sometimes the DVLA will not allow the resurrection of an original registration number, or possibly they will have sold it through one of their regular money spinning auctions.
If the V5 in question was being sold with the original shell or even just the remains of the original shell (crash damaged, fire damaged?) it would be a more viable proposition, morally as well as probably legally.