Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Windshield looks fine, silver insert has turned black as they do over time



looks ok certainly presentable

CBUEB1771 wrote:The changeover seems to be at No. 7001020001N which should be close to your vehicle number.

The VIN that I was given by the seller is six digits with no letters. Did the format change at some point, or has my friend merely made a typo?

That sounds right. My 1970 ex federal +2 has a chassis no. of 50/2399 and was probably close to yours in production. The change over to the long numbering system followed not long afterwards.

Dave Chapman.

Veg, the VIN format did change in 1970. Your VIN is probably the same format as my 1969 build date car, 50/2181. 50 is the Lotus Type Number. Unlike the Elan, Europa and Esprit, all Plus 2's have the same Type Number, although there were a series of major changes over the 1967 to 1974 product run. Note my car is 'known' on it's vehicle registration as a 1970, because the cars often sat in inventory for a while before being sold and registered.

There are folks here that have info related to the car VIN, or you can post / send the VIN to the Lotus Archivist (he is on the forum) and he can tell you the build date and some other info. Running changes to the Plus 2 are listed by VIN in a book called Authentic Lotus Elan & Plus 2 by Robinshaw & Ross.

'Your' car looks like the Federal version we got in North America. How close is it to my 2181?

Generally it is best to refer to the car by it's build date to avoid confusion with any running changes, particularly to the electrics. Does this car have four or six minor gauges? There was a major change when a Ambient Temperature and a Clock were added to the dash, along with a number of other changes to the interior. Another later major change was to add a five speed transmission, but we did not commonly get them in North America.

HTH Very nice looking car for sure.

Stu

david.g.chapman wrote:That sounds right. My 1970 ex federal +2 has a chassis no. of 50/2399 and was probably close to yours in production. The change over to the long numbering system followed not long afterwards.

Dave Chapman.

OK, that makes sense! The one I'm getting is 50/2036.

Stu, I don't recall a clock right off but I wasn't looking for one either. I'll get back with more details later.

The car is probably the exact same spec as mine, which includes all running changes up to the later introduction of the Federal Plus 2S. Very nice specification. The Plus 2S was when the clock was introduced, so won't be on this one. I think mine was a Nov. build, so yours maybe March to June '69. Someone may post the correct info from the list with the VIN.

Stu

Update:

Signed the title tonight! Saturday while I'm out of town the new clutch-slave will get installed and the engine tuned-up a bit, then in December once I'm back in town I'll actually be able to take it home.

I have a 1970 +2 with chassis #1775. How does one find the "build date"?

agraham (at) lotuscars (dot) com

drop Andy Graham and email on the above address
he's the lotus archivist and should have all the details of your car......

I'll second that! When I had an Esprit and wanted to know more about it, Andy was a real help. He not only wrote up a great certificate of provenance, but also told me the things that were rare, or in some cases unique in the world, about my car, and offered some insights into possible reasons why. I say possible as not everything they did around the works was documented; sometimes you can only guess.

[quote="Steve J."]I have a 1970 +2 with chassis #1775. How does one find the "build date"?[/quote]

It was on 19th August 1969

Tim

Thanks Tim!

Yes, how does one determine the date? Is there a list somewhere?

2036
engine number I20375 4 speed box yellow built 3 July 1970

????

trw99 wrote:

Steve J. wrote:I have a 1970 +2 with chassis #1775. How does one find the "build date"?

It was on 19th August 1969

Tim

Ive got
1175
engine number I18379 4 speed box built 30th April 1969