[TR] tr3 comm. number

John Macartney standardtriumph at btinternet.com
Thu Nov 27 16:08:54 MST 2008


Larry Schwartz wrote:

> list. with regards to the tr3's comm. numbers. my number is TS77317LOZ.
> (year> 1960)  does anyone know what the last letter Z stand for? if i am  not
> mistaken, it means that the car is a left over from the prior year or a  carry
> over from the current year.

Larry, I think the best place to address your question is the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon in the 
UK from where Heritage Certificates are issued. I've just checked the website and there is a new 
service just released about obtaining 'basic' information. Click on 
http://shop.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk/shop/heritage-certificates/archive-research-services/archive-research-services-10401/index.html 
and you'll see for GBP3.75 (multiply by about 1.45 to get it into $'s) you can ask a related 
question to do with production searches. It's an email request of you and the site says you'll get 
an email reply. Don't know whether your query is covered by this research facility but its worth 
asking. When I worked there I did use an archive reference book on many occasions that dealt with 
special Triumph codes. Absolutely NFI on my part but with respect, your interpretation is unlikely 
to be the correct assumption. Any car left 'in stock' between one year and another would have been 
because there was a drawdown problem on the letter of credit to pay for it - and a strike or 
production shortage would have caused this. Contrary to populat opinion, at no time in the post-war 
years did the company ever build cars 'for stock' except in very limited numbers. Even in the 1960's 
territorial specifications varied widely and too widely to risk working capital exposure by making 
cars on the basis they *might* sell somewhere, some day. Such a situation would in no way affect the 
commission number which would have been allocated, cast in bronze and unalterable some eight weeks 
before the car actually came into existence. I have a sneaky feeling that possibly the 'Z' may refer 
to the actual factory build location where this wasn't Coventry. Prior to commission numbers having 
numerical prefixes - e.g. 1FH meant a Belgian built Spitfire, I think the build location was an 
alpha suffix and I think, though I can't be sure your car was built in Ireland from a kit. Anyway, 
Gaydon should be able to tell you.
My 2 pee's worth

Jonmac 


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