Hi All
As I mentioned in one of my last postings, I have just recently purchased my
first Spit in New Zealand. It came with the original owners manual
(slightly shabby) which had "Mark IV" written on the front cover, crossed
out and replaced by "1500". Strange I thought, but I simply thought one of
the PO's had acquired it some time after the vehicle was originally made and
thought it was a good (if not slightly incorrect) addition to the car.
Anyway, last week I was once again getting better acquainted with my new car
when I decided to have a closer look at the commission plate. Now, my car
is a British RHD Spit, most probably shipped to New Zealand shortly after it
was assembled, so it only has the one commission plate on the left hand side
of the engine bay. You can imagine my surprise when I looked closely at
this plate and found it was a Mark IV commission plate!! The plate is
definitely original and the commission number stamped into it has got to be
for real! My NZ registration papers seem to be in order and also have the
same commission and engine numbers and state the CC rating as 1493. The
chassis/commission number is FH75339 and the engine number is FH29992HE. I
have registered this car with Joe Curry's database and from this database it
would appear that it must be a 1975 1500!! Does anyone know anything about
my dilemma? The guy I bought the car advertised it as a 1500, and of course
it must be, but its just a little tricky to know for sure now, especially
since the cosmetic differences between the Mk IV and early 1500's are very
minimal on the British cars.
Any help to unravel this mystery would be much appreciated!
Regards
Paul
1975 1500 Spit
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