Chassis number help

[Gjk]

I am struggling to understand part of the chassis number from my 91 turbo se. The number is SCC082910MHA60153. It is the letter A that I don’t understand, is the car an export? Or am I just being a bit dumb...😳

[Chillidoggy]

If I’m right, A is for Australia. Check the parts manual to be sure.

[Gjk]

That’s what I thought. The parts manual does say that A was an Aussie export. The reason I questioned is that there are so many bullet points in the parts manual of variations, I got quite confused! I’m of the opinion that it was an export car. It would explain why the lacquer was peeling so bad!

[Escape]

My first Esprit, a 1990 SE, also had the 'A'. It was a RHD I got from Germany, so I don't think it ever made it to Australia but perhaps it did differ in some ways from domestic spec. For whatever reason.

Filip

[Gjk]

That’s interesting to know. Does the letter A mean it wasn’t a domestic car? I’m guessing your 1990 was chargecooled? Can you remember if the heater/ac control plate was labelled esprit or esprit Turbo?

[Gjk]

Sorry went a bit off topic! 
 

I didn’t think the esprit was exported to Germany?

[Escape]

2 hours ago, Gjk said:

That’s interesting to know. Does the letter A mean it wasn’t a domestic car? I’m guessing your 1990 was chargecooled? Can you remember if the heater/ac control plate was labelled esprit or esprit Turbo?

The 12th character of the VIN indicates the market. 'D' would be domestic, 'A' Australia etc. So mutually exclusive. However, this was changed in 1993 according to my manuals. From then on the 'A' indicates RHD, 'B' would be LHD. Maybe this was actually implemented earlier? That would explain my 1990 and your 1991. Although I do have 2 customers with '91 and '92 cars and their VIN follows the original rule, not the updated one.

As to your other questions, yes, my first Esprit was also a chargecooled SE, it did have Esprit Turbo on the HVAC panel, as does my current SE. I'm sure the Esprit was old on Germany in the 90s as well. As far as I know, it was available in most of Europe.

BTW, you're allowed to go off topic, you started the topic. 😉

Filip

 

[Gjk]

I was under the understanding that the letter, A - Aussie or  D - domestic indicated where the car was sold in the world, the part order books only list a few countries that the cars were exported to. I don’t know if the letter change was implemented earlier than 93, but it seams odd to date it in 93 if so. This is what’s causing me the confusion...   🙄

My HVAC panel only has “esprit” on it. Could this possibly be an idiosyncrasy with an export model.

i would like to fit the correct panel but am struggling to find one...