John,
Dave and I have been comparing notes on the subject of these Canadian cars with
the single digit prefix and have discovered that in no observed case
was the prefix more than one digit removed from the last digit of the actual
build date.
In some cases it was the same as the build date and others it was one year
later. This causes us to conclude that the most likely scenario is that
upon import the digit was added to declare the year model according to the
North American practice of extending the model from Fall to Fall.
Interestingly, the practice seems to have been abandoned about the time the
North American Safety and Emissions legislation went into effect.
Interesting about that much traveled car you mention. It would probably have
been much cheaper to sell the car locally and buy another upon arrival!
But then there is no accounting for the attachment we seem to develop for these
cars!! :)
Regards,
Joe
John Macartney wrote:
> Good points, Joe but many interesting things have emerged over the
> years on vehicle movements. One of the things I find particularly
> interesting when "looking over the shoulders" of my colleagues
> churning out Heritage Certificates are the historical movements of
> cars from one continent to another. I believe the archivists are soon
> planning to plough back into previous certificate issues to see where
> cars have been used and over the last 10 years, there has been a lot
> of activity.
> Many (myself included) assume(d) that the vast majority of cars left
> the factory as built-up or CKD kit units, went to the country of
> ultimate destination - and stayed there. Of course, this was exactly
> the case but quite a number of people send us the results of their own
> research when trying to unravel the history of their own vehicles and
> its amazing where they have been. Last year, I came across a TR4 that
> has travelled more than a little extensively.
> According to our records:
> It first of all went to South Africa as a built up unit with right
> hand steer
> Then it went to British Columbia and was converted to left hand steer
> Next stop was Sydney, Australia - and back to right steer
> Back to Los Angeles - and another left hand steer
> Finally, its come back here - and guess where the owner plans to put
> the wheel?
> This global travel is by no means unusual for many former UK makes -
> so first stop Ireland and then to pastures new?
> Entirely possible. Who knows, might have had some Shamrock shipped
> with it in the lamp lenses along with the spare keys!
>
> Cheers
> Jonmac
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