VINChecker

It is unusual to find a car with good competition history with its original shell intact, never having had any remedial bodywork.

A documented factory re-shell in period is not a big deal, as long as the original shell was destroyed when discarded – otherwise the potential for dual-identity cars can rear its head. Fortunately we now have tools at our disposal to assist in verifying a car’s identity, one such tool we use is Vinchecker.

Vinchecker is a portable device that uses non-destructive metallurgical scanning technology to visualise the inconsistencies of a metal surface. Specifically, if used around the chassis plate area, Vinchecker can tell if the chassis plate resides on metal that is consistent with the rest of the structure of the car.

On a 40-year-old vehicle, you might well find evidence of fresh metal in areas where the cars rust, but if it’s near a chassis plate or any area with stamps indicating the car’s identity, that should arouse suspicion.

It costs from £500, depending on the extent of the testing process required, and we provide the client with confidential results. If you don’t know what to look for, using Vinchecker does not make you an expert – but in the right hands it is an invaluable tool to assist in confirming a car’s identity and provenance.