• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

First 100 Engine Serial Number Plate

Share this page

Re: first 100 engine serial number plate

How can he prove that he didn't stamp that himself and age it to look like that??
 
Re: first 100 engine serial number plate

Seems to me his target customer should be the guy who owns the first car, unless of course that car already has a plate....
 
Last edited:
Re: first 100 engine serial number plate

Derek--

Totally.

Does anyone know where that first car is and, if it exists, who owns it?
 
Re: first 100 engine serial number plate

According to the books, this engine number was on the very first Longbridge built car, chassis 138031. This car apparently exists. Wonder if it has its original engine.
 
Re: first 100 engine serial number plate

Well that's quite interesting given that the pictures on the acme site shows a plate with the same number though it is of a totally different type. I seem to remember that the plates used on the earliest cars were different than the ones used in later production but unless I am missing something either the plate on Harber's car is of the wrong style and was probably made up and attached during the car's restoration or the plate shown in the online sale is a forgery and this is a clear case of a fraudulent sale.
 
Re: first 100 engine serial number plate

Michael, I'm not sure what the number tags look like on a 100 but what the ebay ad shows looks like an engine number tag that goes on the block. The acmefluid site is showing chassis & body tags but not the engine tag. The do say in the text that it is the original motor and the motor number is shown on the larger chassis/body tag, but oddly they do not show a shot of the motor number tag itself.
Does make me wonder how the guy on ebay would have gotten that tag - perhaps the motor in the acmefluid car was a replacement early in the car's life and someone failed to move the tag to the new motor....?
Curious for sure
 
The engine number plate looks legitimate to me. If it is a forgery it is of very, very high quality. The font, the out-sized letter "B", the shape and aging are precise and it is simply quite, quite remarkable if a forgery, in my estimation.

The three ID plates shown on the acme website are of the chassis number ("Car No.") plastic plate that was attached inside the car on the left side kick panel, the body number plate, and the additional chassis number plate attached to the top of the left longitudinal frame rail.

The one photo of the engine (on the acme site) is low resolution and thereby indistinct on the question of whether the engine number plate is present, but if I had to guess I'd say that it is missing in that photo.

The person offering it on eBay invites inquiries for more information and photos. I'll send him a note to ask how he came to possess it.
 
I also wonder why it did not come into Harber's ownership. Certainly the seller must have known that the plate would have its highest value to Harber, the owner of the car and his ownership of the car is, and has apparently been, public information. From what I know Harber is a wealthy guy and it makes little sense that a $1K asking price would have been a conversation-stopper.
 
Sent a note through the eBay message system to the seller. He responded quickly which is usually a good sign. Here's what he said:

Good Morning Reid

How are you? Hope all is well. I have owned the tag about 6-8 years, was purchased with a group of 100 Healey parts including 6040X carb bodies I needed for my "M" from "Racer Bud" in CA.(See Photo Plastic bag in ad) I know the #1 car came from CA many years ago so I surmise the tag was removed when the engine was rebuilt years ago as it would not survive the hot tank.

I matched the tag to the #1 car when I was looking through the parts book,(See Photo)

I will answer any questions I can, please just ask.

Phil

(The photos he refers to are the ones on the auction webpage; he didn't send me any photos.)

In any case, what Phil wrote checks out very well. Presumably the engine was rebuilt before the current owner acquired it, and so the engine number plate could have been removed before the current owner bought it, and then separated from the car for some reason; it's an easy thing to forget when an engine comes back from the hot tank, and since the plate is pretty beat-up, most probably would not have wanted to reattach it to the fresh engine anyway. If you didn't know (or care) that it was the very first production 100, I can understand how it would not have been a big deal.

I'll email the owner of the car and provide a link to the auction in case he'd be interested in acquiring the item.
 
So, the honey trap has been set....
Proven providence, car with missing tag, loaded owner, motive, need, opportunity and a public auction all coming together !

Price IMHO is too high for the ordinary Joe to bid, have a bit of history and a conversation piece, price is not too high for the owner to pay to return to rightful position.
Will be interesting to watch.
 
Just to follow-up: Blair Harber, the owner of the first production Austin-Healey, is well aware of the location of the engine number plate and he was in contact with the seller about it long before the current auction. They could not agree on price, and that's where the subject remains.
 
Back
Top