Amazing barn find and a journey of discovery

[abzadams]

A great find and a great story.
A very rare car! So many questions!!! I take it the body wasn't made by Karmann then? Of the 1000 or so that were built, what % were RHD? If the 001 was RHD, is it safe to say that it might have been the first MFI car in the UK? Was it a demo car?

Well done chaps, next you will be telling us that it still has the Hydropneumatic suspension!!!

[Darren65]

I had asked by pm to our vin number guru Ian McLeod about early lwb numbers. I hope he doesn't mind me reposting his reply here.

http://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/ucp.ph ... 0&p=247604

Morning Mike,

Ian's reply doesn't show, probably as it's a link to your personal account - please could you 'cut and paste', important part of the story after all

All wonderful stuff

Cheers,
Darren

[johnM]

What was the original colour?

It looks like light blue the same as Vickys car.

[210bhp]

Thanks Darren,
To give the missing information from Ian. Here is the important section of the pm's to/from him about the list of the first LWB RHD cars imported to the UK.


blah, blah, blah...................................................
In the first batch of three you mention, one a T one an E and one an S , were any of them chassis number 119........001? Built August 68.

Regards
Mike


No. The lowest UK car was the T and it's somewhere near 005.

This T was the UK demo car as was the second E (a sporto) and the second S. The first E and S were customer cars with the S collected from the factory.

[Bertroex]

Aha! So a bit like Sylvia (your '66s) then: first chassis number, but later imported or retained at the factory?

Is it somewhat unusual to have both engine and chassis numbers starting with 001: I seem to recall that drive trains and chassis were mixed and matched and the only "matching numbers" aspect was that the certificate of authenticity confirmed that engine number xyz was delivered with chassis abc from the factory. Rarely where they similar?

Fascinating story, just fascinating. Couldn't happen to nicer early porschista's IMHO!!

Bert

[bjmullan]

Aha! So a bit like Sylvia (your '66s) then: first chassis number, but later imported or retained at the factory?

Is it somewhat unusual to have both engine and chassis numbers starting with 001: I seem to recall that drive trains and chassis were mixed and matched and the only "matching numbers" aspect was that the certificate of authenticity confirmed that engine number xyz was delivered with chassis abc from the factory. Rarely where they similar?

[bjmullan]

Early start, and we arrived bang on the agreed time.  

And for those of you who know Mike well this was a bit of a novelty.

[johnM]

Come on Mike cancel all appointments and concentrate on the job in hand.

[Nige]

Couple of root canals and a polish first I guess.

[pmjt]

Mike, I'm guessing you've already found out any information that Porsche hold but to reply to other comments, the UK was a small market for Porsche in those days with places like Hong Kong and South Africa both being more important RHD markets - following Ian's comments I'm wondering if she made her way over here later in life

P

[johnM]

Hi Mike

With regard to the registration , my car was imported into the UK in October 1980 from Switzerland and it was given a 1980's current reg of TYC 431W so maybe this happened to your car. It then had a private plate and only when this was removed an age related plate was used.

Kind Regards

[964RS]

Yes I did think the registration would seem to imply it maybe came into UK later - this happens quite a lot with DVLA...

I've never seen an original UK sale car registered at a later date, I don't think.

[dragonfly]

This is a great story. I look forward to future installments

[KS]

Yes I did think the registration would seem to imply it maybe came into UK later - this happens quite a lot with DVLA...

I've never seen an original UK sale car registered at a later date, I don't think.

It is possible that earlier in its life, it had the original reg transferred to another car. Back then, DVLA (or whatever it was called in the 1970s) didn't much care about age-related numbers, so would most likely have allocated a new number from its current 'stock' of unissued plates.

[pmjt]

Yes I did think the registration would seem to imply it maybe came into UK later - this happens quite a lot with DVLA...

Where was the reg??? I missed that one???

I've never seen an original UK sale car registered at a later date, I don't think.

A couple of people have already described imported cars but this also happened to UK cars if their *original* paper records were not computerised by the DVLA (for whatever reason) in 1980 / 1981. My RS was purchased in 1978 and given a private plate. When the records were computerised many years later when the plate was changed, it was given the index 'EMV 182T' - completely incorrect for the car. Took me a year to argue with the DVLA to get the 'original' L plate back

If this car was off the DVLA radar when computerisation took place, then changed ownership / plate change etc. that could explain it. Although Ian's records suggest it didn't come in through the UK....

P