On Fri, 17 Nov 1995 DSand95510(at)aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 95-11-17 17:28:50 EST, gibbons(at)northpole.med.uvm.edu (W.
> R. Gibbons) writes:
>
> >While people are asking about serial numbers, I have a question. The
> >serial # of my Series V is B395000284LRX. Supposedly the X denotes
> >"special equipment" or something like that. What special equipment might
> >that be?
> >
> >
> I seem to recall reading that the "X" sometimes refers to lighting. North
> American standards are different ("special") from British or European, but
> I'm not sure how a Sunbeam would have been affected - maybe some countries
> require backup lights, column flasher switch, brighter/dimmer headlights,
> emergency flashers, etc.
Most everyone has said that the X refers to eXport. I've checked to see
where I read another meaning. The Sunbeam Specialties catalog has,
inside the cover, a section on chassis letter suffixes. It says that GT
designates Gran Turismo (the hardtop Alpine), OD denotes overdrive.
Moving to the final three letters, the first letter of the final
combination may be H (home market-England), R (rhd export), or L (lhd
export). The second letter indicates R, roadster. The third letter may
be either O (standard), or X (non-standard), or P (police specification).
On Tigers, the final pair of letters are FE, for ford engine.
If L in fact denotes not simply lhd, but lhd export (and if a british car
is lhd it automatically would be export), then it would be redundant for
the X to indicate export (redundancy of course being possible).
So, my question remains. Do those of you who are convinced X means
export have some written authority for this, or did it just seem
sensible? If it means non-standard, then non-standard how?
Maybe we can approach an answer in another way--do any of the US owners
have an Alpine in which the final letter is something other than X?
Anyone's number end in O, for standard? In the UK, what suffixes do
people have?
Obviously, I wonder if my car is special in some way that isn't
immediately obvious, or if all North American cars are non-standard. The
car has wire wheels, but otherwise seems stock.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons(at)northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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