VIN question for 308 about to purchase....

The sad/funny part of this is if it turns out to be a factory mistake somehow to many this will always be a car with a cloud over it even if it were the finest 308 on the planet....meanwhile over in vintage ferraris someone can find one piece of a frame with a chassis number and rebuild/fabricate the entire rest of the car and sell it for millions. The ferrari community is a strange place.

 

We had the car up on a lift the other day and I could not see anything indicating a frame cut/weld (I am far from any expert though). The car drove true, hands off the wheel at 60 mph, dead straight, no squeaks just smooth. The engine and tranny have been rebuilt as well by Ferrari Canada which I would guess they’d have noticed a welded frame or body warp/torquing if it had been put together from multiple cars.
It just seems to be an interesting puzzle.

 

To add to the mystery, one might reasonably expect 33419 to bear a July 1980 manufactured date.

But the door tag shown for it in the earlier post no. 34 shows May 1980.

For comparison purposes, 33409 was made in July 1980 - see picture.

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Certainly there were cars which were built not exactly in numerical order, but this 2 month variance is, at least, curious.

 

And here's 33467, which is also July 1980.

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The photo wasn’t very clear, that’s why I zoomed into the last 5 digits as well, but it is stamped as July, just hard to read. That would have been a whole other kettle of fish, but actually maybe cleaner as it would have strongly suggested that the door and column VINs would be fraudulent. But alas no, the door tag does say July.

 

My ex 308 was 31311. Allegedly the second US spec injected chassis. I don't have a pic of the door plate but from memory mine said march 1980.

After being here many years and reading bits and pieces of similar threads about VIN's and build dates it seems that during that time (change from carbed/injected) and US vs Euro spec chassis numbers and build sequencing during that time was less than clearly linear.

 

I think it's 1 in 50 chance. Not great odds, but not a lottery ticket either.

 

"... it seems incredible that internal quality control allowed such a mistake to pass." Maybe I was unlucky with my car but I found several quality issues that were from the factory. It happens more often than you'd expect. The Jaguar world is full of these kinds of stories with digits reversed etc. Stamping was a low-level job and given to apprentices.

 

I agree with you in parts, there were a lot of those who were taken from various stock so from time to time, you could have a long period covering the changes.
But for chassis number, it is the first time I see that kind of error. It is going to be hard to make them admit that by the factory, that will be interesting to ear the feedback....
I hope this will be that far because very often, people doesn't do it because of the fee asked by Classiche.

 

Typic al Ferrari....I did buy a door gasket for mondial QV and received it :
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When putting it on the car...turned out the complet closed rubber ring whas turned 360 degrees, so I hat to cut in 1 corner and put the rubber right.. Quality control in Ferrari plant : zero.

 

These are all great side bar discussions, Months, dates, VIN sequencing (discussed extensively many times before) ill fitting parts.

We are trying to sort ONE car with ONE problem.
I hope he buys it...

At this point the odds of a theft hidden so many years ago everyone involved is dead....

I also love all of you expecting the Factory to confirm anything, on the 70s -80s production.
Not going to happen......

 

Having engine and transmission numbers will help a bit more

Then ask a Ferrari Classique dealer for a quick check in the database


You just need to find a nice one to do it for free

And yes thats possible

 

What are the odds that over the life of this 40 year old car no one else has ever noticed or documented the error?

 

They probably did.

 

Probably unlikely, but not without (recent) precedent and might depend upon who was doing the asking. If you were putting the car in for Classiche then they would surely resolve it because they'd want the money. Although I wouldn't like to bet on what their resolution might be.

 

wheres the guru of vin numbers carbon?

 

I’ve reached out to Carbon a few days back. Apparently 33819 has had a few reported changes in body colour and interior throughout the years though most recent report is as indicated here. Carbon indicated the sleuthing would continue and hopefully something more will come up.

Once again, thank you everyone for all your input in this matter. As I see it the explanation with the least numbers of “errors/mistakes” makes the most sense. Of course though, the story is not complete.

If the car is unadulterated and if 33819 is the “true” VIN then the factory would have messed up the check digit for the chassis as well as put the wrong column and door tags on.

If 33419 is the “true” VIN then the chassis was stamped wrong at the 15th spot and was not “noticed” or reported for 40 years.

If it is something less than legal or a complete legal rebuild from two different cars then that’s a wild fluke that the two cars were exactly off by 400 AND the frame check digit was wrong, or the “fake/illegal“ car had all this effort done to it but they couldn’t match the VINs and still had a chassis check digit mistake.

It seems most likely that is was a simple stamping error at the factory putting an 8 on the chassis when it should have been a 4.
Interesting mystery and thank you for all the help. I’ll update if I hear anything back from Carbon.

Cheers

 

I seem to recall watching a youtube video on 1980s ferrari factory painting etc where they specifically mentioned that they don't have "matching numbers" that xxxxxx chasis went with xxxxxx and these items were noted during the production process....
not sure if it's in this video but search old ferrari factory production process etc....i only remember because growing up i had a couple of old corvettes and it was really important to have 'matching numbers" and was surprised when i watched the video on ferrari that they don't have the same process.

 

yep thats my vote

 

stay away

 

So I decided to purchase the car and upon further research through this wonderful site I came across this thread: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/308-gtsi-belt-service.336369/
I am virtually certain that these are the same cars as the history lines up perfectly, as do the receipts. Glad to see that it was shown some great care.

 

Great!
Remember that if you have the car now, with body and engine number, you could have an other estimate if it is the 419 or 819.
Let us know them, I can cross checked.

 

Looks like it’s 00579

 

I guess it is the engine number. it is definitely the range of the end of july 80 prod.
Do you have the body number to confirm ?

 

You know.....I have given it some thought...

And I'm glad you bought it, hopefully at "considered value" over this anomaly..

And I would urge you to gently try to sort it.

But, were it I, go with the VIN number as refelcted in the paperwork trail, and the odds of anyone ELSE even noting it, are very small.
These cars have aged to the point they are excitment at the store", but I'm not sure anyone would get very excited about this..

UNLESS it points to a theft, the one exception...and if the Mafia was taking one, it would not be an '81, GTS!!