Before I do something really, really stupid...

Could someone give me a rough idea what this sort of Lotus would be worth in the US?

Not that I'm considering to purchase that with a view to putting it into a container and shipping it over, oh no. But not if I lose money on the deal. Just to clarify, it's not for selling on, potentially as a high day & holiday car. There's just no point in dealing with the import hassle if I could purchase a good one in the US for similar money. BTW, that's roughly $25k in US money, plus shipping...

And of course there are further bad ideas if I continue looking...

Tim, I think if that car were LHD, in either its original color, or a more desirable color, it might be worth US20k. It's pretty tatty all around and it looks to have a sympathetic cleaning for the photos. FHC doesn't help. It also looks to have an extra instrument (clock maybe) to the lower right of the combo guage. Maybe that's a UK thing. Good luck!

Interesting - that would suggest prices for them are actually lower in the US. Not that that's a bad thing.

The galvanised chassis is a big plus here in the UK due to the weather, obviously.

Thanks for pouring cold water onto this as I'm actually actively trying not to spend money on cars at the moment.

Without knowing much about the subject at all, I'd say that two cars to think about would be Landrover Defenders (those things still go for stupid money, even if road hard and put up wet), and a Mercedes 190E 2.5-16. I saw one for sale here for 45 grand. Although that one probably is too new still.

1985 110 V8 Defenders (the ones that go for stupid money) aren't exactly easy to find. I have been keeping my eye out for one of them but no luck so far. A lot of them are quite rotten and need a new chassis, too.

The 190Es aren't that cheap here either, plus they're RHD and not easily converted, so I'd have to look in Germany. Don't have the time to fly out there, though...

FHC's seem to take a big price hit over here, even though they are basically the same as the roadster and you can easily cut the top off. I don't think that car would see anywhere near that Buy it Now price (after conversion to real dollars) in the US. You might find a collector willing to pay a bit more for a pre airflow coupe, but only for their rarity.

I have been actively looking for a FHC Elan for a couple of years. That's a nice car, but it's priced in the range of many nice roadsters. Bad color choice, though.

If you really want an Elan over here, you might want to bring one with you. There are far more of them over there. I've been looking for years and they just don't come up for sale around here that often.