Curious, anyone know what was the first assembly number? I’m doubting my car was the 3,510 348 built already by July 1990. Image Unavailable, Please Login Vince FerrariChat.com mobile app
I don't have that plate. 82641 = 8/89 build delivered in 5/1990....which is suddenly strange to me...
What plate don’t you have? The VIN plate above for assembly number 0004 is the “rest of world” VIN plate. The North American cars got one in a different format that contains the production month and year. So you wouldn’t have that particular plate. But yours would be similar, left door jamb. Rest of world is right door jamb. Here is mine. Euro 92 ts. May 1992 production date. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Door jamb, yes. assembly number, no, and my door jamb plate is the USA style one where the "august 1989" build date is listed. sjd
Wow that’s weird. Not even any holes where it should be? Send a pic. And yours is earlier than 0004 above. I wonder if some early ones snuck out of the factory without one?
I have July build 82391 which also does not have the assembly plate later models have attached to the left rear upright. If you look at the picture of mine it does have a number 12 stamped in that area just below where the later cars have the plate. If you look closely you will note that the same number is just below as well in the rear cradle Image Unavailable, Please Login support. Also note there are no holes where a plate would normally be. I have speculated this was a body/assembly number used at that time but can't factually say for sure. My car is also reported here and several other sources to be the first 348 imported into the USA but I am still trying to get factual from Ferrari that is the case. The car was sold by Ferrari of Atlanta but not until 6/30/90 and a CarFax report shows there was millage at that time so again speculation is the car may have been the car used for publicity by Ferrari of America before being put out to sale. I have the bookwork that came with the car and have the name of the original owner but have been unsuccessful in contacting him so far but still trying. Hope this helps shed some additional light on the early units.
That assy series with the plate started in very late 89 or early 90 and counted all cars built going forward for internal tracking. Not sure where they are now but in 2000 they were up over 37000. It does not indicate the 3510th 348, it indicates the 3510th Ferrari built since they started.
Mine looks EXACTLY like this. except i'm stamped "64" No holes for the assembly plate. Now i'm going to be looking for "64"s everywhere. sjd
@GTO Joe Curious how far you made it with your search? Was searching through the forum for information on this very topic - early build cars without the assembly plate?
To answer your question I really don't have a lot of additional additional info since the above posting. Ferrari is really hard to get any info out of unlike some other makes of vehicles. I have considered having a Red Book done on my car to shake some info out but that is expensive and from what I have heard not a guarantee that I would get what I am looking for. It is unfortunate because they keep detailed info on every build at home base. I have gotten really great info from Porsche for several of my cars and even the 2 Pontiac GTOs I have there is photo copies of build sheets, window stickers etc. available for only a few dollars. I haven't given up but to date the only additional info I have is my car was shown at the 2008 Cavalino Classic with the original set of black luggage they gave the original owner to compensate for the "demonstrator" mileage the car received before purchase from Ferrari of Atlanta. I even went to Ferrari of Atlanta a few years ago and they don't have sales or maintenance paperwork back that far but did acknowledged they sold the car and it was in their system. The original tech that prepped the car for sale still worked for them at the time of my visit as well. I'm going to keep trying though.
I have pictures of 7 VINs earlier than yours all 3rd brake light "US spec" cars. whether they were actually sold earlier than yours...I don't know. sjd
Yes there are earlier cars than mine, I have some info on them, but based on the limited info I have people are saying mine was the first on these shores. There was what appeared to be TS body #1 just sold on BAT so they are out there. I wish I could get more on the luggage "gift" from FNA to back up what I have been told. I also have a picture of approx. 6 early cars sitting outside the factory awaiting QC corrections before they could be released for shipment that may contribute to which one was first here in the US. It makes sense that the factory would release only the best one they had fully sorted to FNA which I do know was really the first caretaker of my car. One another thing that muddies the water is the early cars were sent down the line with 328s still in production, kind of "prototype" cars. One last thing is I know a Berlinetta was also sent early (it's on the cover of Auto Week in early September and being road tested by Phil Hill in the January R&T mag) so the bottom line is the only real true way to know is from the FNA archive which is a vault not easily opened hence my thoughts of going Red Book. This subject has been a fun sideline for me because I didn't know anything about it until a few moths after purchase when I first found an old posting from Marshall Goldman in Cleveland touting this nugget when they acquired the car from the original owner to sell in the mid 2000s. The bottom line is I really like this car and don't ever plan to part with it. My kids can "fight" over it when I'm gone.
I've not posted them, I keep them for me. It's not a formal list (just a fun side distraction), and I keep just the last 5 digits and some pictures when I do a random "1989 ferrari 348" search. classic.com has been a pretty good source. Here's a pic from my folder. I know of some cars, but don't have pictures. US cars started with 82277, but that's my opinon. I'm sure a bunch of cars are missing. I'm up to 37 though. One is Blue, One is white, the rest are rosso corsa. Image Unavailable, Please Login sjd
One other thing that makes this "study" complex is the way Ferrari assigns serial numbers. The above list is a good example because it shows how they are randomly assigned to specific models which is contrary to the way we are familiar with by US automakers which will assign in sequence to a particular model. You can't subtract 79908 from 82521 to determine how many 348s were made in between. There were 328, Mondials, and even F40s being assembled during the time frame we are talking about as well. Those crazy Italians.
LOL. truth...so those could REALLY be in sequence...but who knows... I know from our shock tower stampings that isn't the case, I just haven't found the other '89s yet. sjd
82391 was the 12th US-spec 348 ts by chassis number: 82277 82281 82292 82301 82311 82314 82321 82325 82330 82333 82337 82391 I don't know what order they were assembled or delivered in.
And body number 11. And my question is; is it 11th TS or are there some Berlinettas in that mix? Like I said above, it is puzzling how they numbered the cars and I guess Ferrari is the only one that can factually say.
As far as I understand it, prior to assembly numbers which are across models, the numbers relate to a specific model and market variant of that model. In other words, the xth US-spec 348 ts.