Andy Graham and Lotus cars

[cal44]

For those of you that don't know.  You "may" be able to buy, from Lotus cars in the U.K a birth certificate for your Lotus.

The archives master is Andy Graham.  Contact him via email.  Provide what he requires.  In my case a picture of the build tags in the car and also the Vin.
Cost is "about" $50.00 U.S.  I like getting these for my cars.  When I was doing Porsche and early Fords I always got the paper work when I could. 

In the off event you want to sell the car, it is nice to have a factory sheet.  I found him to respond quickly and very polite.  Since guys like me are always looking for more info on Lotus I find this to be a great service.

mike

http://www.lotuscars.com/us/ownership/certificate-provenance

[Bainford]

Very cool info, Mike. I had no idea that something like this was available from Lotus. I'm going to look into this. Cheers

[Grumblebuns]

Mike,

Do you know if this is the same thing as a "Certificate of Provenance" ?

Joji

[4380r]

Mike,

Do you know if this is the same thing as a "Certificate of Provenance" ?

Joji

Yes, this is the same thing. I order the Certificate of Provenance from Andy two weeks ago. As has been said, had to take a pic of the VIN plate (the one in the front boot with all the fluid specifications).

He sends a draft of the letter and certificate via email, and once you acknowledge that is what you want and you remit, he sends along.

[Serge]

If you want to extra information that they have on your car, but don't want to spend the money on a certificate, he will email you all the info they have free of cost. But, for the early cars they have very limited information because of (I believe) a fire in their archives in the past.


Kind regards,

Serge

[cal44]

For those interested, I got my certificates for the Loti today and quite pleased.  Yes, I know it is just a piece of heavy paper with some writing but I'm into the history of my cars.  Porsche has been doing this for decades.

For instance, I have a '72 Elan Plus 2 coming in from New Mexico next week (basket case).  Turns out it was a customer pickup at the factory in the U.K.  Without the certificate I would have not known this.  Sometimes it's the little things that make life more fun.

Thank you Andy Graham of Lotus.

mike

[Grumblebuns]

Anyone know if Lotus can supply the various plates located on the front bulkhead and door stamped with the car VIN and other info when it came out of the factory. I have two project/parts TCS Europas, both came with titles and the crashpad VIN plate, but both are missing the door VIN plate and one is missing the front bulkhead plate.If I decide to restore both rather than parting them out, it would be nice to have all of the factory supplied plates.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

[LotusJoe]

Anyone know if Lotus can supply the various plates located on the front bulkhead and door stamped with the car VIN and other info when it came out of the factory. I have two project/parts TCS Europas, both came with titles and the crashpad VIN plate, but both are missing the door VIN plate and one is missing the front bulkhead plate.If I decide to restore both rather than parting them out, it would be nice to have all of the factory supplied plates.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

Joji,
I wrote the factory and sent them my old plates and they replaced all identification tags with new ones. Since you don't have the old ones to send it may be difficult. I would suggest you write the factory maybe they will issue new ones if you can demonstrate your are in-fact in possession of the entire car and it is for restoration purposes. 

[EuropaTC]

Very occasionally blank chassis plates come up on Ebay UK but I've never seen door plates, presumably they must be just for the Federal cars ?

On the topic of Andy Graham and history, I've also contacted him through email and he's a very helpful guy. My query was about my Elan and he told me things like when it was built, engine numbers, etc. He even found which dealership it went through to the first owner.  Of course, being a history nut I then went out to buy some old car mags from 1968 on the off-chance that they had adverts from the dealer. (which they did) 

So you see Mike, you're not the only one who likes to know the tale about your cars.    I'm so hooked on the idea that a few months ago I finally tracked down a mint copy of the 1987 magazine that contained the original classified advert from which I bought the car. Now that's nerdy...... 

Brian
 

[cal44]

B,

that makes makes me a total car nerd.   I've not seen door plates and all mine are Fed cars.  I would be interested in finding out if the plates were, at some point, in door areas.  Perhaps the early Fed cars?

mike

[Grumblebuns]

Joji,
I wrote the factory and sent them my old plates and they replaced all identification tags with new ones. Since you don't have the old ones to send it may be difficult. I would suggest you write the factory maybe they will issue new ones if you can demonstrate your are in-fact in possession of the entire car and it is for restoration purposes. 
[/quote]

Thanks Joe, I'll contact Andy Graham after the holidays.

Mike, as far I know, both of my S2s and and all three of my TCSs have the door plates, so I would assume all federal Europas came with these plates, except the S1s. I've attached pics of these plates, one from the S2 and the other from the TCS.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca 

[cal44]

Joji,

I stand corrected............

Guess I'm thinking to much about Plus2's.  As many times as I have opened the driver door on that Europa I did not notice the plate.  Since it had one in the front, I never looked on the door............and yes........there is a plate......d'oh


mike