Guys,
I wonder if someone can help out with this one.
My 1970 project car was created for UK delivery according to the data card and Body & Paint Plate, however, in other aspects it appears to be Australian delivered.
The original datacard has a production date (handwritten) of 10th March 1970 which seems consistent with the production run being 15,918. The owners manual shows a first registration date of 31st May 1970 with a Melbourne based owner (I assume the first) which was then crossed out by a subsequent owner from Brisbane I believe. I eventually purchased the car from Perth last year. The 31st May 1970 first registration date would be consistent with an early March production as it would take about 2 months to get it to Australia and through customs. (I know this as I did it in 2010).
(There are few other minor aspects where this car differs from my 1969 280SL which I personally imported from the UK. Eg: This car does not have the Aluminum trim under the rear license plate which is common on UK cars.)
I can only trace its history down with past owners / service dealerships & car registration authorities to 1978. The first name in the book (which was crossed out but barely legible) is such a common surname it is impossible to contact. It appears he did start a real-estate business at the address in the book but the current owners could only say they believe the old guy died a few years and have no knowledge of family. My google searches couldn't help and as I said his surname is far too common.
Unfortunately I found the Victorian and Australian car registration authorities particularly unwilling and unable to help. Mercedes in Australia could not help either as they claim they didn't have a central database back then. I then thought to contact the DVLA in the UK in the hope that they may have some records which could prove it was first delivered / registered in the UK, but I found them to be more useless* (if that is possible) than the Australian authorities.
Does anyone have any plausible explanation as to why a car built/plated for the UK could end up in Australia so soon? (Did they order it via a UK dealer? Did they walk in the showroom whilst in the UK on holidays?).
I'm not sure what other research I could do to shed more light on this?
Thanks in advance
Rob
*NB: I first called the DVLA and was requested to write a letter with my request and they would get back to in 4 weeks. Some 7 weeks later (no response) I called them and they stated that I needed to fill in the V888 form and send in 5GBP - but that I needed to provide the car registration number. I tried to explain that I don't have a UK registration number. On later calls - one person stated they cannot do a search based on the VIN number and another told me to send in the 5GBP and they will "reply" to my request (but could not say if that reply would be helpful).
