Odd chassis plate stamping

Austin Healer

Austin Healer

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I have seen one other car so marked. Right before the engine number are the characters "C6" in a smaller font size. Obviously this is a special car... Note the chassis number!

No one has been able to enlighten me what this means.

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Special car...most obvious would be a C6 Ford automatic transmission, but, on a prototype auto Tiger a C4 would make more sense. I'm sure you thought of this already.
 
I did. the ledger records that it had a standard close ratio 4 speed. The other car I saw with this stamping was also normal spec. (4 speed) I was told that it might have something to do with its special status, or that it was a prototype (which it was), or that it might have been some kind of promotional car. I don't think that the other car was nearly as unique as this one. I was also told it might have had something to do with eventual destination (Eastern Canada).

Like I said, no one seems to really know :)

Here's the one other example that I know of, an early Mk1. The "C6" stamping is still on the engine line, but now in between the engine number and the group number. An interesting side note on this car... Its engine number is NOT listed in the ledger. There is nothing to indicate that this car is anything but an ordinary MK1 Tiger. It is also recorded as built with a normal close ratio 4 speed

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This car was in Victoria, B.C. in the early 80’s and was owned by Ted Gordon at the time. I don’t recall where he purchased it from. I do remember him restoring this car back then. Nothing unusual about it other than the Vin which I didn’t understand being a new owner myself. ( there was very little info on these cars back then) It migrated to Washington State and then recently moved on. There is a 3rd car I have heard about with a engine number add on like the one shown above.
 
The C6 stamping is definitely interesting, but the VIN itself is even more interesting. The tag shows B9479975 P.P. LRX

I have never heard nor seen a VIN like this. 947 cars went as high as 3762 or thereabouts. How does a car get a 9975 serial number? Moreover, what does the P.P. Designate? Finally, the FE designation is shown on the Engine number line instead as a suffix to the VIN.

All very interesting and I am all ears on this one because I have no clue.

Thanks
 
Tony butler said:
No lube chart but has the rivets does that mean it is a later mk 11A ?
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MK1A cars didn't have lube plates. This car was the very first (prototype) Mk1A. It is a square door and hood, round trunk corner transition body. My understanding is that these cars still had the holes for the lube plates, but they were never installed, and the holes were simply filled with rivets.
VaCat33 said:
The C6 stamping is definitely interesting, but the VIN itself is even more interesting. The tag shows B9479975 P.P. LRX

I have never heard nor seen a VIN like this. 947 cars went as high as 3762 or thereabouts. How does a car get a 9975 serial number? Moreover, what does the P.P. Designate? Finally, the FE designation is shown on the Engine number line instead as a suffix to the VIN.

All very interesting and I am all ears on this one because I have no clue.

Thanks
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This car and its sister B9479976PPLRXFE were the Rootes prototypes for the GT interior and revised top cover. PP stands for Pre Production. Neither of these cars have a JAL tag. B9479975PPLRXFE does have a tag of the same dimensions as a JAL tag, but it's on the LH door and it's simply stamped PP47.

The FE designator is on the engine line because there is no room for it on the chassis number line. There were two additional cars in the set that were numbered PH39 and PH40. All four cars survive.

These cars were all parts of the CB2810/3 program and Graham Vickery has told me that he believes that it was part of the same program as the MK2 development cars. In fact, it was produced at the same time as the AF200 series of cars.

B9479975PPLRXFE also has the upper tabs for mounting a MK2 eggcrate grille insert. It was the first car w/o the starter handle reinforcing tube.

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I assume that Rootes just created the chassis number out of series due to the special nature of the car. When Victoria British still sold parts for Alpines and Tigers, they listed both numbers in their catalog as well. I wrote to the Coventry Trust and they sent me the special ledger pages for all of the "PP" and "PH" cars. These are much like the Jensen ledger and list all of the component and key numbers.
 
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I know that Ron Stein was working on a couple theories and a Canadian connection too but not sure how far he got
 
Austin Healer said:
I assume that Rootes just created the chassis number out of series due to the special nature of the car. When Victoria British still sold parts for Alpines and Tigers, they listed both numbers in their catalog as well. I wrote to the Coventry Trust and they sent me the special ledger pages for all of the "PP" and "PH" cars. These are much like the Jensen ledger and list all of the component and key numbers.
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Here's a pic of the PH650039 'photo' car that was used in Europe... repainted from original white
I know the owner of PH650040 'photo' used in North America... it was in a fire and written off except for a couple parts I got

There was nothing special about these 2 cars so it's odd that they put a unique tag# on them as they had other 'show' cars that didn't

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66TigerMK1A said:
I know that Ron Stein was working on a couple theories and a Canadian connection too but not sure how far he got
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That's who I bought the car from. He ultimately couldn't find out, Graham Vickery had no idea either. I did ask Norm Miller as well... No one seems to know what it indicates.
 
Austin Healer said:
That's who I bought the car from. He ultimately couldn't find out, Graham Vickery had no idea either. I did ask Norm Miller as well... No one seems to know what it indicates.
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I was talking to Glenn Fukui today about that pp car and he had names of a couple owners from way bacl. He said it had a C4/302 at one point and later on had a 289 HIPO block and possibly a Mustang top loader... I wonder if the tunnel showed any evidence of that !? Glenn has a lot of info on early B.C. cars
 
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