Modern spotting is such an easy ting today. Every car has its VIN placed in the lower window on the driver's side. With Ferrari life was as easy since the early 1970s when they put a little plate on the steering column showing the Serial Number and later the VIN. This was waived after the F430 Series. In additon -up to Modenas with Serial Numbers just below 130000- the Serial Number has been etched into the windows. US-spec. cars have it as well, but in the Factory's paperwork only, the windows are clear with those cars.
What to do with cars that have been produced before 1970? The only way to identfy a car by looking at a plate of those, is to open the hood and taking a look in the engine bay, where the Telaio -the Serial Number plate- is placed. So, if owner or dealer are not near or not too keen of sharing a view under the hood, you only can try to identify a car by its specification and the history provided.
What does F-Register do in such a case? We are consulting our database and our photo archive of more than 1,6 million pictures (a fifth of those are our own copyright - funny details, aren't they?) and in addition, we are requesting our network -a small, but fine and educated group of experts- and friends. Usually, this efforts are successful, especially related to historic cars.
At the moment, we have seen one of the 60 Ellena Coupés occasionally and we are suspecting a Serial Number, but we want to be sure - shouldn't that be our approach?