DrMayf has asked some questions concerning Tiger VINs and here is what I
conclude from looking at the numbering system and from an engineering
background where, as you design stuff, you have to give it part numbers for
manufacturing, planning and spares provisioning.
Ron Fraser is right that B means a 1960-and-on model. Early car models had no
prefix and A was introduced for the new designs for the 1950 model year.
The Tiger is a modified Alpine in an engineering sense (sorry purists) so we
need to look at the number sequence of Alpines. Although the Alpine floor pan
apparently evolved from the Husky there seems to be no link to Husky VINs.
>From the Alpine Parts List 6600992 June 1968 we see chassis numbers commencing
with:
Series I B9000001
This makes sense; a new model for 1960 (the first Alpine came out in '59)
thus B and 9 was assigned to the Alpine model.
Series II B9100001
Minor modifications but you can tell the difference with the 1
Series III B9200001
Same thing - Series III has that 2
Series IV B9400001
This is interesting, they skipped over 3 to 4. I bet the factory/dealers were
getting confused. "The Mk II is a 1 and the Mk III is a 2 - thats pretty dumb"
So now the Mk IV is a 4 - bingo!
Next on the list is Series IV Built Up B94100001
Series IV C.K.D B94600001
I am not exactly sure what the difference between a Series IV and a Series IV
Built Up means but I suspect it had some thing to do with the build state in
which they were exported and they needed to differentiate between them and
fully assembled cars. C.K.D means "knocked down" - cars delivered in pieces to
be assembled abroad like the African Violets. The third digit was added to
differentiate these.
Look what is next: B94700001 - A Series 4 Alpine modified into a Mk I Tiger.
Series V Alpine B395000001 Built Up
B395900001 C.K.D
It does not look like we are following the sequence, but we are. We have B950
00001 with a 3 added on front for some reason and the B959 designated the
knocked down version, again with the extra 3.
Enter the Tiger IA: B382000001. We have the B and the 3 but where did the 82
come from? I would have expected B94800001 or B394800001.
The Mk II Tiger followed the IA as a minor mod with B382100001; not
withstanding my previous post where at one time it was going to be
B392000001.
To repeat, this is my interpretation of the available data and not based on
information from the people involved. Perhaps Norm or one of the other Gurus
would care to pitch in.
Bill
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