Hello, Healeyphiles -
I received information this morning on a BJ8 now in Canada that will
celebrate its 40th birthday in a few days. This car was originally shipped
from the factory to the port of Philadelphia in January, 1966. The
interesting thing is that the BMIHT certificate lists "octagonal wheel nuts"
as part of the optional equipment.
Among the 493 BMIHT certificates in the registry files, I have noted that
cars shipped to Philadelphia as early as April, 1965 were equipped with the
octagonal wheel nuts, while other cars for the USA do not start to include
this type of nut consistently until June, 1967. As a matter of fact, if a
certificate for a car earlier than about 41500 indicates the Destination
only as "USA" (as many of them do), and the car has octagonal knockoffs, it
would be a pretty good bet that the destination was actually Philadelphia.
Cars destined for Germany had the "earless" knockoffs installed pretty much
from the beginning of BJ8 production, and I would assume that was because of
German law. Anyone have any idea why only cars for Philadelphia among those
coming to the USA would have had these installed two years before other USA
cars? The ones for New York, Newark, Baltimore, and other USA destinations
apparently made do with the eared knockoffs.
Thanks, and Happy Healeydays!
Steve Byers
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
Havelock, NC USA
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