Production numbers vs Mfg Date?

I'm confused (as always) when it comes to numerical sequence number, vs manufacture date. My car (47635 Euro Version) is titled and registered as a 1984 and does not have a door plate showing date of manufacture. I'm registered in the 308 qv register http://www.308qvregister.com and all the other cars around my sequence number show production dates of 1983. Now...the thing that throws me off is there are many instances where car number 1 will have a June of 83 date, and car number 20 will have a Feb of 83 date?! How does this work?

 

The can pass each other on the assembly line, as different cars were for different sales markets...

There was a shot of about 50 completed F40s sitting outside once, waiting on the headlight buckets!

There's also been the theory that all the VINs were established for the year, prior to actual production...


So the VIN to the date is not always "orderly" by modern standards!

Yours also shows the "hang time' in shipping in those days.......I have a late 1976 that has always been titled as 1977....

 

the frames were built in groups, its discussed more in the Assembly Number thread in detail. i cant remember the exact figures, but that thread has great info and pics.

 

That happens sometimes but there are many factors at play. Many European countries assign a model year to a car when it is first sold. US goes by the VIN it was assigned. Numbers are sometimes built way out of sequence but it is not all that common on the standard production cars. Ferrari tends to assign them pretty much in order. Cars like F40 get assigned numbers in large blocks and then they build the cars when they have time. Also on the 83's, for the US cars it had the longest production run, calendar wise, of any Ferrari I have seen. It lasted something like 15 months. The 84 had the shortest I have seen at around 8 or 9 months.
I am still working on organizing all my data on QV's but I bet your car was built around March or April 83

 

I respectfully disagree, and would like to take that bet.

I surmise that it was built between August and September.

 

my former gtb QV was *44297* and it was built in march of 1983.

 

My car is a 83 US QV -48223- built in 7th October -I've the Ferrari Certificate-, with production number 365. It was registered in the US -first owner Richard Gray- on 14 February 1984. So you can extract some useful info.
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So if I understand correctly, it was built sometime in 83 but sold as an 84 model year. Is that a correct statement?

 

I bet it is September. I must have transposed a number when I looked it up.

Duh.

 

Riffledriver....do you have anything on the number of left hand drive Euro Qv's that were built by chance? I know there were 2809 LHD QV's built, but dont know how many Euros.

 

I am quite a way from being able to tell you that. I have a great deal of information on the entire series from many different sources. Additions are still coming into my possesion on a monthly basis. All that info needs to be transcribed into a single data base and I have just begun on the QV's.

I did put out a few feelers to my friends with the factory and others that also have good contacts to see if I could get access to any records either above or below the table and all I get is a friendly no. It is interesting they are so protective of the records. I kid you not, it is easier to get high tech secret stuff out of the F1 department that to get info from the archives. A bag full of Harley Davidson logo clothing will get you almost anything from F1. I know.

 

Hmmm Harley stuff to get to F1...wonder what we need to do to get into the archives. I was first thinking Corvette clothing, but that obviously wouldn't go over well....then I was thinking some some good Scotch or Jack, but they probably have better spirits over there. Women? No....hard to beat an Italian woman...hmmm. How the heck do you bribe an Italian? They've already got all the good stuff! LOL

 

My 308 is an 83 model, built in October, but sold in February 84 in the US. Technically is an 83 but some people consider that if his car has a 1984 registration is a 1984 QV, and that's not true.
It would be easier to know exactly when Ferrari started the production of the QV second generation. If someone that owns a January-February-March 1984 built car -printed on the plate in the door jamb- could compare my 83 with his car -looking for technical differences like air filter housing, injectors seals, single/dual cat, WP and generator belts...-, we could reach to know exactly when Ferrari changed the model -from a frame number-.
Any help?

 

You have to remember, model year is a function of the government definition where the car was originally shipped. Some do consider the model year as the year first sold. Ferrari's internal position on what year one car or another is depends on what day you ask them. The labels they put on the car assigning it a year is only done to satsify American government requirements. It was not done in other markets. In the US there is no such thing as an 80 or 81 carburetted car. There were many carb EU version cars built long after US 80 and 81 cars were built.