Is My Old Elan Out There?

PostPost by: Ed P » Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:38 pm

Just curious, it was American and if memory serves me the last digits were +172K or +197K. Do those numbers make sense or am I daffy? Don't ask why I would remember such a thing...

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PostPost by: trw99 » Sat Jul 06, 2013 6:20 am

Ed

Yes, those numbers are the VIN.

0172K was a late S4 Federal DHC.

0197K was an early Sprint Federal, in fact one of a batch of S4s taken from the new car parking area and converted to Federal Sprint spec. 0197K was originally 0105K until it's re-designation in August 1971.

I have no record of either car in my private Sprint register.

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PostPost by: Ed P » Sat Jul 06, 2013 1:30 pm

trw99 wrote:Ed

Yes, those numbers are the VIN.

0172K was a late S4 Federal DHC.

0197K was an early Sprint Federal, in fact one of a batch of S4s taken from the new car parking area and converted to Federal Sprint spec. 0197K was originally 0105K until it's re-designation in August 1971.

I have no record of either car in my private Sprint register.

Tim


Thanks Tim for the information. I had two Elans, (not at the same time) one may have been the 172 and the other the 197. Both were sprints but neither had the two color paint scheme, so your information fits for the 0197K. Perhaps I'm wrong about the 0172K since I'm certain both my cars were sprints. The first was red the second yellow. Hopefully they are still on the road somewhere.

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PostPost by: 65sunbeam » Sat Jul 06, 2013 5:31 pm

Ed did you own and sell them in Charleston? I lived there from the mid 70's to the mid 90's and only remember two Elans in town-and I bought one of them (a S2 that was black). Eric
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PostPost by: PanoGuy » Sat Jul 06, 2013 7:33 pm

What year were they? Didn't those numbers get issued each year from 1970 to 1972 and maybe a few in 1973?
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PostPost by: trw99 » Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:55 am

0172K came off the production line in June 1971. It would then have taken several months, of course, before it had been shipped to North America and then registered.

0197K came off the production line in August 1971 in it's Sprint incarnation. Originally it would have been assembled as the S4 in December 1970 or January 1971.

The vast majority of Federal Sprints were manufactured between August 1971 and August 1972.

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PostPost by: Ed P » Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:24 pm

65sunbeam wrote:Ed did you own and sell them in Charleston? I lived there from the mid 70's to the mid 90's and only remember two Elans in town-and I bought one of them (a S2 that was black). Eric


I purchased the red one in Atlanta about 1971 and kept it for about 2 years in Clemson, SC. Then purchased the yellow one in Rhode Island (the red having about 50,000 miles on it) and in 1975 moved to Charleston where I kept it for many years selling it about 1987. During that time I was hit from behind in traffic, had it repaired and repainted it blue/white. Never saw a black one or any other Elan in Charleston. But I did live in Mt. Pleasant, not in the city of Charleston. In fact of all the Elans I've seen, I've never seen a black one.

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PostPost by: PanoGuy » Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:15 am

Tim,
Sorry to be a bit dense here, but why are these 1971 cars?
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PostPost by: trw99 » Mon Jul 08, 2013 8:11 am

Hi Doug

There is an explanation of the Lotus VIN system here: http://www.lotuselansprint.com/index.asp?pageid=41826

In the case above the full VINs were 7106150172K and 7108200197K

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PostPost by: PanoGuy » Tue Jul 09, 2013 4:59 pm

Tim,
Thanks, that answers the question. I wish he had the engine numbers. I just checked my car, 7104070159K and the engine on the serial number plate is G24472, which is, oddly enough, higher than the engine # on the red Elan Sprint, 0190K listed for sale on this forum about a year ago, it's engine is G24100.
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PostPost by: trw99 » Tue Jul 09, 2013 6:13 pm

Doug

Nothing odd there with the engine numbers! Unlike the VINs, engine numbers were not sequential. Remember the engine was also going into +2s and Europas at this time, a small number into Sevens too.

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