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I have been looking into the Polar Silver '95 M030 which is for sale (ex-Pete RSBarn car), and I realized that it's Chassis number is outside the published last number. The last US 968 Coupe is listed as 0258, and this car is 0307.







This leads me to believe that there is likely atleast 307 coupes in 1995, not the previously published 258. If anybody has an unlimited Carfax or similar, this could be confirmed by seeing if there are any 259, 260, 261...308, 309... car listed.



It is unlikely Porsche would skip numbers.

Thought it does look like a 1995 VIN, what was the option code for 94 models sold as 95s?

that is a very odd number indeed - it is a 95 according the the "S" designation, but oddly does not have the 718 option code that we have thusfar seen on all 95s



a bogus number? a special order car?

If that is Pete's test mule it was a special order car. I beleive just to get the Polar Silver in a coupe in '95 it was special order let alone to get the cloth sport seats.

Why would a special order car have a chassis number outside the normal range? There are many special order cars around on this board (the Maritime Blue on ebay for example). All the numbers fall within the normal series. If, for some reason they continued to build US spec cars on special order, it would still mean there were more than 258 coupes in 1995. I suspect the original source (a 968 book), may be less than reliable.

I don't know why a special order car would, I was just commenting ont he post above mine. Don't they also reserve the first 50 or 60 numbers? I've heard something along those lines before.

they do reserve the first 60 numbers, but, according to peter morgan's book, in 95 those numbers were 830001-830061



very odd indeed

Interesting. I'd suspect that the book data does not cover all special order cars.



Be interesting to ring your local Porsche Centre and query them about the numbers between 258 and 307 Do they even exist? You can do this, I did it when I was looking to buy. They wouldn't reveal who ordered the car, or what price was paid, but all the production information and any warranty work was available.



I know my car was a special order ('94 Aussie CS with Aircon and comfort seats) and it's chassis number is in the range given in the book.



Michael

There really is no mystery to the whole thing.



I believe the fifth digit from the end is the random number that adds privacy to the VIN and so changes car to car. My last 3 digits on my '95 cab are 261. Minus 60 and I have the 201st cab off the line. Yours is 307 minus the 60 and you have the 247th coupe off the line. 258 holds true.

Even if the first 60 are "special orders" they are included in the total number produced. Just becuase they were not standard production, doesn't change the total number produced. The Peter Morgan book goes back to around '95. Quite likely, the last car hadn't been produced when he had gathered the numbers. Even since everybody has qoute it as law. He just went to the factory and asked. Something other have done as well.



I tried a quick free carfax just to spotcheck the upper numbers. The last number, with any records, still in existence is 315. This stil leads me to believe there are more than the 258 cars produced. Now more likely that there are atleast 315 original produced. The number still around is likely far smaller.......

The concept is that the first 60 numbers were never sold to the public and probably never even manufactured. Porsche reserved those numbers for their own use - test mules, crash tests, etc. It is probably standard practice (?) and unnoticed in large production runs.

What Eric said!



Literature only states for internal use. It says nothing about special orders. How long have you been holding this conspiracy all to yourself?

I've been running the cab registry for 5 years now. I have almost 600 US cabs regsistered. i don't have a single cab that falls out of the known production run (BTW, starts with 61, not 62, each year). That said, i have seen a number of 95 US coupes with VINs higher then 258. The highest I believe belongs to the guy with the summer yellow coupe in FL. I believe his car is 820319??? Morgan's book is wrong in that he includes the first 60 in the production figures. I have documentation from PCNA that shows sales figures that balance with those numbers minus 60 per year.

perhaps just a case of "x+y must equal z"? he might have had production quantities, started at 1, and then went from there, where he should have started at 61 - that would have made the last number in 95 319 - so, you could actually know the last car produced (the yellow coupe in FL) - how cool would that be?



the next time i talk to him, i'll ask him - we seem to chat a couple of times a year, so i imagine i will know before too long

I have a dumb question then, what are the 1-60 cars counted towards? Are they 94 production cars, which were carried over to the '95 sales year? No WP0AA296?SS820001-WP0AA296?SS820060 VINs have records. They return a proper response, which means the VIN number is valid, but no car was ever recorded. What is this range reserved for??

The 1-60 vin numbers are not released on the street if they are even produced. They are wrecked in safety tests or used as test mules at the factory.

That is a lot of crushed 968's.... <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/sad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

Probably nowhere near 60 made for that purpose but it's easier to reserve the numbers in the beginning of the run.

My 94 Polar Silver Coupe was: WPOAA2968RS820655



Steve

[quote name='Mark' post='28648' date='Dec 1 2006, 05:25 PM']The 1-60 vin numbers are not released on the street if they are even produced. They are wrecked in safety tests or used as test mules at the factory.[/quote]



It's funny, I believe that even the rare turbo S and RS cars have VINs that start with 61.