Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 09:44:37 -0400
From: Angelo Graham <a3graham@mc1adm.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: TR3A Commission numbers.
Hello list:
Trying to help a friend with his TR. It is a low 30,000 no. and is
registered as a 1960.
Also has the bullet nose starter (broken!). Anyone have any idea of the
comm. nos. roughly related to years of production? Any ideas as well on
when the bullet nose starter was discontinued? My idea is that this is an
early 3A, and if it is a "1960", it was sitting around a dealers show room
for some time.
Thanks in advance for any help with this.
Angelo Graham
1959 TR3A
Waterloo, Ont. Canada
Angelo (and others),
I don't have the time to look all of this up again (and prevent making a
fool of myself) but I seem to recall that the story goes something like
this...
Many, if not all, of the foreign cars sold in the USA in the late
'50's-early 60's have a title date that does not match the build date. At
that time, there was only one U.S. government restriction on imported cars.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture required all imported machinery to have
a fresh coat of paint (to eliminate the introduction of non-native weed and
insect species). That was it for import restrictions. So, car dealers,
who of course wanted to sell the customer a "new" car, titled the car at
the date of the sale, not at the date of manufacture. To further
complicate the issue, there was a world-wide depression in the car market
in the late '50's-early '60's. So Triumph dealers had all of these cars
made in '58 or '59 sitting on the lot for a year or two. By the time they
finally sold, the title date was a year or two later than the build date.
Very common. My "61" TR3A was actually built in Dec of '59.
Why did this change? Because of Ralph Nader. In the early '60's, Nader
and his associates started advocating for consumer safety issues and forced
the U.S. government to begin regulating the manufacture of automotive
vehicles (which until that time had no manufacture restrictions). All
manner of rules and regulations were passed (and continue to be
passed)--mandatory seat belts, minimum height of head lamp from the ground
(the reason why most sloped nosed cars have flip-up headlamps--the nose is
too low for a fixed lamp. They have to flip up to reach the minimum
height), etc, etc. Because the various laws came into effect at different
dates only vehicles built after that date had to meet the new regulation.
Therefore, automobile manufacturers had to switch to using the date of
manufacture for the title--and stop using the date of sale. This is why
you TR6, 7 and 8 owners have never run into this problem. It is pretty
much restricted to the TR3A, TR3B, and very early TR4 owners.
At least, that is my understanding of the story....
Bob
Carpe Cervasium
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