Help decoding Sprite’s VIN please

[healey dude]

Looking to purchase, can one of you smarties please decode this for me?

HAN8L5560

 

[Editor_Reid]

H = Healey

A = Engine displacement between 800cc and 1999cc (originally meant between 800 and 999cc, but since "B" meant an engine between 2000 and 2999cc and there was therefore no letter between A and B to designate an engine between 999 and 1999cc, A came to mean "below 2000cc").

N = 2-Seat Tourer

8 = 8th model in the series (nobody seems to know why the Sprite "series" started with 5).

L = Left Hand Drive.

5560 = The individual chassis number.

HAN8L5560 is a Mark III Sprite with a 1098cc engine, at least originally.

 

[healey dude]

Thank you Reid! Much appreciated!

 

[pan]

Reid,
Your comment "nobody seems to know why the Sprite 'series' started with 5" needs a response. Has nobody ever considered that AN5 followed BN4? There is said to have been a "BN5" but this designation was never applied to a production model.
But having said that, anyone attempting to make logical sense out of the Austin model designations is looking for trouble.
Cheers,
Alwyn

 

[Editor_Reid]

...anyone attempting to make logical sense out of the Austin model designations is looking for trouble.

Indeed. For starters, the BN4 should, of course, be a BT4.

 

[Michael Oritt]

Yes, I too have always wondered about why the early 100-6's were called BN4's. Perhaps it was an admission by some realist that the jump seats were useless for seating and the car was in reality a two-seater, which they later took back when they introduced true two-seated 6's and needed to fall back in line with the Austin system of model delineation.

 

[pan]

What I have always found odd is that only us Healey guys use the Austin codes when discussing our cars. All Austin cars and trucks had such codes but you rarely see them used outside Healey discussions.
Alwyn