What constitutes an "original car?

[elansprint71]

Reading this advertisment I'm drawn to the conclusion that it is whatever a chassis plate is attached to. Allegedly.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1964-Rare-LHD-Series-2-Lotus-Elan-Racing-Car-NO-RESERVE-/180645486952?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item2a0f4f6168

[Old English White]

Reading this advertisment I'm drawn to the conclusion that it is whatever a chassis plate is attached to. Allegedly.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1964-Rare-LHD-Series-2-Lotus-Elan-Racing-Car-NO-RESERVE-/180645486952?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item2a0f4f6168

...
At least it deserve to figure on the " Elan Flairs - the good the bad and some ugly ones " post, shortly before being back on the racing section, after a successfull campaign, no!?!
Christian.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

It's a fairly rare WTC variant!
Well & Truly Cobbled

[gino1]

Personally I don't like the way the advertiser cunningly wrote that that the original car has just had a complete restoration and this was not the car for sale.
We then have THIS car which is nothing to do with the introductory story, and only probably mentioned to mislead an eventual buyer, which in reality is a track day car with no ID and no V5 probably made up from left over bits.
The stromberg head was introduced in 1968 and hence cannot belong to the original 1964 engine.

Gino
Milan Italy

[trw99]

And does anyone use Strombergs for racing?

Tim

[gerrym]

IMHO, it ain't original unless it has the original tyres and the showroom oil fill. All these d&*m modifiers that insist on replacing tyres and things and destroying the natural patina should be rounded up.!!

[elansprint71]

So; from reading the words A full restoration of the "original car" has just been completed, resulting in a 1964 FIA GTS spec Elan racing car retaining the original chassis plate and Lotus ID. can we deduce that the car in the advert has had its identity put onto a completely different car which has now become a very expensive racing car with provenance? What is a GTS spec, btw?

I'll ask the boys on the Racing forum for their views.

[bigvalvehead]

A GTS spec Elan is basically a car to full 26R spec but with out the ever so important 26R chassis plate.

Some GTS cars run bolt on wheels rather than knock ons but everything else is the same but at a cost of approx 60K as opposed to 150K.

[elansprint71]

Thanks Dave. How many 26/R chassis plates were made... ?

I'm think that I'm getting the hang of this now; does not matter what shed full o'bits you have, as long as you have a "genuine" chassis plate, you have a GTS.

Back to the advert; given that blank plates are available all over the place for peanuts, it would not be too difficult to fit a "distressed" one to the car on offer, glue back the correct body parts and then argue the toss with whomever comes along.

[sparkey]

I think you're absolutely right. The seller has built a new race car but wants to run in historic racing and so needed an identity for it so he's "aquired" the identity of the car for sale. The buyer of this car just needs to find an unused chassis number from a car of whatever age he wants it to be and attach it - even MOT it and apply for an age related plate if they wanted to put it on the road. The fact that it's not "original" to any particular age or series in fairly irrelevant as it's unlikely someone will buy this to turn it into a concourse car. I'm quite tempted !

Steve.

[pereirac]

Looks like it's just made out of old parts... The closeup photo of the engine bay shows a chassis plate??