Loved the Prisoner’s car as much as the series.
He knew every nut, bolt, and cog and he built it with his own two hands.
He knew every nut, bolt, and cog and he built it with his own two hands.
There was a good reason to build a kit car in the 60’s in the UK, and Lotus supplied to that market.
From wiki -
The British tax system of the time (Purchase Tax) meant the car could be supplied as a kit (known as “completely knocked down” or CKD) without attracting the tax surcharge that would apply if sold in assembled form. Tax rules specified assembly instructions could not be included, but as the rules said nothing about the inclusion of disassembly instructions, they were included instead and all the enthusiast had to do was to follow them in reverse.
It ended in 1973 with Common Market rules. The tax was significant in the 60’s varying from 25% to 55% depending on the year.
IIRC Lotus gave a free (or reduced cost) dealer service at 50 miles or so. If you could get your newly assemble kit car to drive to the dealers they would check it out for you...:^)
The 1964 Lotus Elan I owned came with the thickest workshop manual. It was nicely divided into sections and described how the disassemble and then carefully put it all back - this was the "not allowed" instruction manual. It even included all of the part numbers of the non-Lotus (Ford and Triumph Spitfire) parts that made up the car. Wiki doesn't mention it, but professional assembly help was not allowed.