I have contacted Lotus Technical Services to try to trace the history of my car and they were very good with Chris Brown getting information back to me.
However It had some news that surprised me ! The car was originally Lagoon Blue, I knew from previous owner it had been white and that when he had sold it on back in the 80ās a garage in Manchester re-sprayed it Red and fitted a black vinyl roof (as it is today)
Chrisās text below say the car was supplied as a demonstrator to Harpers as you will see.
āYour Elan with chassis number 7310/1686L was supplied to a company called
Harpers with an engine number of P31055. The rough build date we have for
your car is 11.10.73 and was sold under invoice number 08751, the body
colour is listed as being all Lagoon and was used as Harpers demonstrator.ā
SO NOW THE BURNING QUESTION IS WHO ARE HARPERS ???
I would dearly love one of you out there to be able to help me on this as I cannot really find anything which looks like a positive lead on the web ?
Unless you can find someone with local knowledge going back that far its going to be difficult.
If you have the original UK registration number then the dvla [http://dvla.gov.uk]will provide you with all the previous owner details. I think they only reliably go back to computerisation (in 1977?) and the (microfilmed?) details are sometimes very fuzzy.
Buy a few period motoring magazines like Motor or Autocar from Ebay. If the dealer was of any size there will usually be some line ads in the back or If Lotus had a full page advert running the dealer details were usually listed at the bottom.
Hi Guys,
I got some data on the histroy of my +2 from Mike Pomfret at lotusā¦
Aparently it was sold through Mike Spence Ltdā¦
Anyone else have a +2 sold through the same dealer?
Cheers
Tim
Peter, The only dealer called Harpers I can find is as follows; R Harper Ltd, 80 Mutley Plain, Plymouth PL4 6LF. Wacky races and all that eh ? No idea if they were ever a Lotus Dealer ? Will check at Donington this Saturday with the oracle. Bad news is if you check the address now itās a Spar Supermarket ! So presume long gone. Check out on google and youāll see what I meanā¦ There is a R Harper Ltd listed in Plymouth but are Estate Agents - aaaarrrggghhhh. rgds john
Thanks a lot for your time and trouble, I now think that the Harpers were of St Albans who are now Toyota dealers, but do advertise that they were morgan fanchise for many years !! I tracked this due the car being registerd TNK which NK is an old Hertfordshire nuber and from there on to garages with Harper etc etc !!
BUT I rang then and the girl who answered was either Blonde or just unwilling to help !! So I have written them a letter and hopefully we shall be in luck
Good luck Peter.
My carās recently discovered brilliant history is that the PO who had it for 26 years bought it in 1979 from Peter Smith Sportscars, which is actually still a Lotus dealer today., amazingā¦ Still have the faded plastic key fob.
While not detailed on the southrun dealer site Iāll add my own comments here.
Following a shambolic repair to one of my cars and the disappearance of thousands of pounds worth of parts belonging to me whilst on their premises, together with an attempt at a cover up by faking a burglary that they were neither insured for, nor the local police know nothing about, my advice is to never ever consider giving them any of your business. The service manager has been proven to be a blatant liar and the owner makes promises he doesnāt keep.
ooooOK, Iām going to ignore this and keep my charming observation intact.
Iāll simply make the assumption that dealing in dodgy TVRs for 20odd years is enough to make any car dealer jaded and disillusionedā¦, and this has for some reason passed on to their Lotus-servicemindedness.
! The car was originally Lagoon Blue, I knew from previous owner it had been white and that when he had sold it on back in the 80ās a garage in Manchester re-sprayed it Red and fitted a black vinyl roof 
(as it is today)