• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

VIN Number

Share this page

Rut

Rut

Obi Wan
Country flag
Offline
In Terry Horlers book on the Sprite and Midget he refers to the chassis number by series or in the bugeyes case, AN5. I understand the 'code', but my bugeye is AN5L/45112 made in the summer-fall of 1960 and is a 1961 model. Does anyone know what the L stands for? I've read Horlers book and I may have missed it, but can't locate any info regarding the L.
Thanks, Rut
 
L is for left hand drive. British home market cars and other right hand drive cars didn't have the L.

Also be aware that Bugeyes don't really have model years, just build dates. They were titled the year they were sold, not necessarily when they were built. The Bugeye production run didn't really have any big model year changeovers, just changes as necessary.

For instance, the Tunebug was built November 20, 1959, so I consider it a 1959 car. That specific build date is far more important for getting parts and such, as changes were made pretty evenly through the run of cars.
 
Drew,
That makes sense and will probably help me a lot in getting the right parts, etc. I didn't know if it stood for lightweight, loose, lucky to be here, or what.
Thanks, Rut
 
Rut

AN5L44574 was produced 11 August 1960. Yours was produced about 7-10 later.
 
Thanks guys!
 
AN5L 44690 9 Aug 1960 off the Heritage Certificate
 
Back
Top