help..information needed

[mark700]

hi to all,very new on here..i have just purchased a lotus elan +2,it has been in a garage for 31 years and i am trying to find out a bit more about it,dvla were pretty unhelpful and claim to have no records,the old fella it came from was muttering that it belonged to colin chapman,so this is my quest !
reg no..RNG 379F
VIN....0313 ?
ENG NO...LP/10685
many thanks if you can help

[bob_rich]

Hi Mark

The DVLA can be quite helpful ( I know they can be a pain as well!!). I think you need to fill out the V888 form and send it to them with ?5-00 then they will send you all they have on the car. It took them about a month but I got all the info including when the colour was changed and a photo copy of the old Local Authority Log book. I got over 20 documents out of them.

for the first build info the Lotus historian at the factory can confirm the basic spec, body number, and colour and who it was sold to.

[email protected] is his e-mail address

Hope 4 U that it was owned by ABCC!!

Hope this helps

Bob

[Elanintheforest]

Hi Mark and welcome
That sounds like quite a find having been in the garage for 31 years. The chassis is probably 50/0313, which makes it a pretty early car being built around Jan '68.

There are two avenues to explore. One is the Lotus archivist.... [email protected] ....he'll be able to provide you with any information Lotus have on the car. Don't hold your breath for it being Mr Chapmans old car though!

The other is back to the DVLA and download form V888, which, if you are the registered keeper, will allow you to request details of previous owners 'for historical interest'.

You must put some photos up on the forum, as a car like that could well be very original and unspoilt and could be a great reference. It doesn't matter if the old girl is a bit tatty around the edges!

Good luck with your investigations....Mark

[Elanintheforest]

Ha! must be good info to get it twice!

[trw99]

Mark

NG is a Norwich registration, but that does not mean it is an ex Chapman car. Colin would take any car he chose from the new car park and again, that does not make it a Chapman car. Someone has (from memory) a green +2S 130/5 that has C Chapman on the registration papers and which, I would guess, may have been Hazel's car.

Having said that, Graham Arnold always said that Chapman had at least six Lotus cars every year 'to keep totally abreast of his own production and performance standards' and that 'he did not have these cars registered in his name'.

Tim

[JJDraper]

Hi there, welcome to the world of detective work on interesting cars and people. The engine number you give is not shown on the +2 builds but is tantalisingly close to it. It may be from an Elan or then again replaced at the factory. Engine nos. ...684 & 686 were fitted to +2s in Jan & Feb 1968 to chassis nos close to yours. The chassis number tables I have do not show any engine number against your car, so the engine may well be correct for the chassis, with an error in the factory records - not unknown. On this evidence I would hazard a guess that this is a complete, matching numbers car. That said, the reg no you give does not show up on the DVLA's website, so without any further documentation, such as a previous reg number you may have an uphill battle to establish the car's identity.

Some pictures would be good...!

Looks like an email to Lotus is your first port of call.

All good stuff!

Jeremy

[Frank Howard]

Hope 4 U that it was owned by ABCC!!

Bob,

I think his name was Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, or ACBC.

[mark700]

many thanks for all the replies gang,some very interesting avenues for me to try, i have got in touch with dvla but it wasnt re registered in 1983 as requested by all parked up cars so looks like i have got some forms to fill in.
i think it was green at some point aswell which makes some other comments very interesting,the tale goes that some fella called ian something brought it of colin chapman for his wife but she cleared off with a new bloke so said car was given to the chap i purchased it from in loo of a debt.
i will get some piccies for you tomorrow as its still on the truck from this afternoon when i winched it out the garage
regards
mark

[billwill]

Mine's an E reg from 1967, so that F reg would be 1968.

[billwill]

Presumably it will not get on-the-road for quite a while so you will need to do a SORN for the DVLA. [Statutory Off-Road Notification] as soon as you can prove ownership.

It sounds as if the previous owner did not have a log book to give you.

[mark700]

pics as promised

[elanman999]

I hate to say this but:-
1 the seats are not from an F reg car.
2 the speedo is not from an F reg car
3 What is the silencer doing coming out of the centre on an F reg car?
4 the radiator is not out of an F reg car.
Apart from that theres a lot of work to do but as you say most of the bits are there.
I have +2 0551 so if you need any help PM me.
Cheers
John

[JJDraper]

Ditto what John said, but interesting to see the remains of the original water seal above the drivers side door hinge area. Lots of work, but it is complete and it will be interesting to find out more. The DVLA's statement makes sense as the car was already off the road when they went computerised.. there is work here to do to identify the provenance of the car especially with the mods noted by John.

Given my recent shunt... do you want to sell the rear bumper? Seriously though, the bumper looks good and should be guarded from accidental knocks while you are moving it around. Get it removed and put in a safe place asap. An original in good straight condition is rare.

Jeremy

[mark700]

blimey aint you lot the bearer of good tidings lol...should i rape it of the engine for the escort/cortina boys and put the rest on flea bay ?

[elanman999]

That all depends why you bought the car? If you want to drive a +2 then rebuild it. If you want to make the most money from it then break it.
Cheers
John