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Thanks, that's the info I was looking for. Eric

So I'm finally looking for a car again and had a tip from a friend about a 1973 S3 with 1200 miles. The seller seemed to be nice enough on the phone and admittedly did not know a thing about these cars. He did tell me that it had a 2.0 toyota engine (unusual but possible is suppose) and a 5 speed. The car was the center of some sort of legal dispute between himself and a business partner and he had no idea of the history of the car. The wife's out of town and it's only 3 hours away, what the heck i'll go give it a look. I was excited, and when initially seeing the car it gave me a big smile as these cars do. The seller showed me title with 1973 lotus convertable. He started it up, it sounded great. Wow I thought, could this be it? Then I started to notice a few things. The rear tail lights were a squared off oval. Then there was no seam between the rear fenders and the body panels. Wait a second...all of the body was fiberglass. Like an S4 but in a S3 shape, and the fabricator didn't bother to work it arround the front suspension, it was squared off. I asked him if there was vin number plate and he didn't know where to look, and this being the first "original" S3 i have seen I didn't know where. Needless to say we didn't find anything. I did take it for a spin and lets just say it was unpleasant... and a bit scarry in city traffic. I decided that this car was not the one for me but I couldn't help but to feel sorry for the seller. He feels that he has a genuine seven that should be worth 20k. I know these are the potato heads of cars and but all these different things weren't adding up to me. I told the seller that I would post this to see if anyone could help with the location of the chassis number and if there was anything else to help identify the car. And now that I think of it when did lotus stop production of the S3 and start the S4? And when did Caterham start the S3? Were early Caterhams fiberglass? Many thanks to the wise old forum from the humble green newbee, Eric

Thanks everyone. I think that I could have predicted what you all would say but just needed some reinforcement. It put a smile on my face to read your replies. I should have added that I have never driven or ridden in one. Ben at Caterham USA had me sit in a partially built one and that's it. By the way I can't say enough about Ben, he spent about 4 hours with me answering all sorts of questions. nice guy and ambassador for caterhams. even pointed out a few used ones that I wasn't aware of. I love the idea of building one but the practical side of me is saying try a used one first and see if it's what i've built it up to be. Skip, I'll be taking you up on the offer. I grew up in Greeley and need to make a long overdue visit to my mother. Late March or early April? The wife is taking the kids to see the inlaws in New Zealand. 4 week hall pass! Any others on the western slope of Colorado? Thanks again everyone and Let the Games Begin Eric

Hello everyone, another long time lurker here with some questions. For me it all started a few years back when I was having a father daughter day in Aspen and there was some informal exotic car show, I was talking to a gentleman from Ft Collins that let my daughter sit in his Ferrari 360 and he said to me "you know if you are into cars you should go up to Snowmass they are having the yearly LOG up there." So we went and it was total role reversal with my daughter. Lets just say she wasent into it and I could have stayed there all day. Since then part of my daily routine is to visit this site and see whats new and I only now I know what an opportunity I missed by not spending more time and takling with people in Snowmass. So here I am a few years later having endured the economic downturn and feeling comfortable with life in terms of family and finances and I just cant get the Seven idea out of my head. I am an extremely practical person and save money like I will be out of work next week (i'm a finish carpenter, and my employer own's a 61 elite that he put a LS-1 into, it's a monster, and this Seven idea is partly his fault). So I cant quite get my practical head arround buying one of the most impractical cars out there. When I try to explain it to my wife I just laugh. My idea of Seven ownership would not just be about driving a car it would be about tinkering, upgrading, meeteing people, making relationships. So I guess my main question is this, How has Seven ownership ben? Is it everything that you thought it would be? Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Give me the push that I need. Eric