BN7 with BT7 VIN on eBay

[British_Recovery]

Here's something I saw tonight - a red over black BN7. Car looks very nice. Priced in the upper end, I believe. Since I love reading about the cars, I noticed the posted VIN was a BT7 number. I called the seller, whose number was readily available, and asked if it was a typo. His explanation was that back in the day, many of these cars had the wrong numbers assigned when delivered. I couldn't agree with him on that point, and our discussion ended abruptly, after he told me about his 40 years of dealing with these cars. So much for trying to put things in order.

 

[maxwedge5281]

there was a similar healey for sale several months back with the wring vin id as well as obvious changes to the car. i suppose that dealers think that there are lots of people willing to pay big dollars for a two seat car. i called the dealer and he was very aware of the questionable nature of the car but would not back off his price which was very reasonable. only problem...how could you resale in the future "honestly". that car had the two seater rear shroud with a four seater bulkhead and fabricated rear seat area!

 

[DerekJ]

MaxW

I agree, and of course you couldn't 'honestly sell it. The fact is that the car should now be worth less than either a 2 seat or a 4 seat.

 

[British_Recovery]

Out of curiosity, I Googled the engine number. There are a lot of references to the car, a video, different prior ads, and the name and number of an earlier seller. Not mentioned on eBay is the statement that this car was a CKD car, meaning "completely knocked down", and delivered to Mexico as a kit, finally assembled in the Willys plant. It was stated that was the reason for the number anomaly.
How many CKD cars were there, and what is their value compared to regular production? Would there be a Heritage certificate for such a car?
Thanks, Bob

 

[HealeyRick]

How many CKD cars were there, and what is their value compared to regular production? Would there be a Heritage certificate for such a car?
Thanks, Bob

I'll have to do a bit of research, but I remember seeing something recently that there were no CKD big Healeys, only Sprites. The CKD Sprites went to Australia. I don't know that they were shipped elsewhere.

I imagine all the chassis plate swapping we see with Healeys and other cars of that era is one of the reasons modern cars have VINs plastered everywhere around the cars, some of them in hidden places.

 

[Brinkerhoff]

I had a BN7 that had been mistakenly given a BT7 prefix on the plate on the firewall when it was finished at the factory, so mistakes like this did happen when these cars were new. Everything else on the Heritage Certificate matched perfectly and the car was stated to be a "two seater" with a BN7 prefix.

 

[Legal Bill]

Send all the numbers on the car to Heritage and see what they come up with.

 

[HealeyRick]

And this is why I can't trust my memory:

"Most RHD imports come from South Africa. Most of these cars were originally shipped as CKD kits (Completely Knocked Down) and assembled in South Africa. BMIHT has no records about these cars. So they are unable to provide you with a certificate. These cars have an additional larger chassis plate riveted to the near side inner wheelarch. If you find this plate or four rivet holes there you can be certain your chassis is from a CKD Healey."

Read more: https://healey.hyperboards.com/action/view_topic/topic_id/1582#ixzz31tYp1JZv


"Chassis No. BN1161236 was purchased by my in 1998 while living in Melbourne Australia. I purchased the vehicle at a Classic Car Dealer; Brooklands in Sandrigham, Victoria Australia. The car was Yellow and was an Australian Built Austin Healey 100-4. These were shipped as CKD kits from England. I moved to Texas in 2001 and shipped the car to Dallas. Unfortunately sold it in 2002." https://www.healeydata.com/cars/detail/?car=BN1161236


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[healeyblue]

Yup there were Porsche 356's sent to South Africa as CKD cars as well. Something to do with the import taxes on complete cars.

 

[pan]

G'day Healey Rick,
The only Austin-Healeys built in Australia as CKD kits were the Sprite Mark 1, 2 & 3 models. No 100 was ever built here.
Cheers,
Alwyn

 

[HealeyRick]

G'day Healey Rick,
The only Austin-Healeys built in Australia as CKD kits were the Sprite Mark 1, 2 & 3 models. No 100 was ever built here.
Cheers,
Alwyn

I'll admit I know very little about the CKD cars and was only familiar with them from communicating with Sprite guys in Australia over the years. Given the depth of enthusiasm for big Healeys in Australia, I was surprised to see how few were actually delivered there new according to this article: https://www.austinhealeyqld.com.au/historical_information.html

 

[pan]

G'day again Rick,
I'm flattered that you have checked out our club website. The article that you mention was written by Paul Blake, who is our club President. It gives a reasonably clear picture of Queensland in the nineteen fifties, a state with a lot of unrealised potential. The roads at that time were attrocious, and not suited to sports cars of any kind, let alone low slung Austin-Healeys. The Bruce Highway, which is the main road that links Brisbane with Cairns (over 1,200 miles to the north) was in many places gravel, or mud during 'the wet' (summer) until the early '60s.
Things improved as the years passed, but the local distributors of BMC cars decided on a policy of promoting only the MG marque for the sports car market. In fact, I believe only three 3000 MkIIIs were actually sold new in the whole of Australia. Most cars were sold in Melbourne or Sydney and after the introduction of the 100-6 'big' Healeys were available on special order only.
Cheers,
Alwyn
(By the way, I'm restoring a Sprite Mark One myself at the moment)