David,
Thank you for joining. There are a lot of other members in the UK. You can introduce yourself and your car in the New Members Introduction sticky thread under the General Discussion board.
On the data plate in the engine compartment, it is screwed to a bracket by the fender, there is a lot of info including a digit representing the original delivery country/region.
Row 1 = option codes delivered at factory
Row 2 = paint color codes and hard top option
Row 3 = first part of VIN and delivery country
Row 4 = production number and body number
From the sample images I attached, at the end of line 3 is this code. In these examples, the 5 indicates "Europe, outside of Germany" and on the other plate the 7 indicates "America". I assume that means anywhere in North, Central, or South America. Please post a pic of your data plate. Beyond this, you need to be lucky and have paperwork that traces the car's life from owner to owner, county to country.
Also, the search feature works great on this site. We've been on-line for 20 years, so almost any question you may have was probably asked/answered in the past. Please get comfortable with the search feature and you will be able to educate yourself quite a bit. For example, do a search for "data card".
