B9471573 50th Birthday

Happy Birthday to my Tiger! September 18th 1964! (OK, 7 minutes from now, close enough)

Production Numbers

Happy Birthday Jeff.

As a side note...I found it interesting that by late September 1964 over 1500 MK1's had already been produced. Considering that the production line opened on 1 Jun and by the end of Jun there were only 50 something produced, it seems as if the line really got rolling.

You can see they did not build these cars in order.....my ex-Tiger just celebrated 3 days ago and it was 1010 cars before yours. Did they build them and just pull a vin tag out of a bucket?

Some Flexibility

I think the "birth dates" might actually be the day Jensen reported a complete Tiger to Rootes. Consequently, cars might have sat for a couple days before being reported. If the line was putting out 30-40 cars a day, I could see the potential for a jump in sequence number between report (birth) dates.

After 4+ years of ownership, I still consider myself a relative Tiger novice, I would, therefore, be interested hearing about this topic from those more experienced and knowledgeable.

Here is the info I got from Norm way back:

Chassis = B9471573 - 1,573rd MK I.
Engine = 2486 T12KA - 2,486th 260 under the Rootes contract, assembled 8/12/64.
Color Code = 58 - Rootes color "Midnight blue".
ROTA = 1386 - 1,386th Tiger commissioned by Rootes ("factory" order number).
Jensen Date 64/09/18 - Jensen reports to Rootes the vehicle as complete.
JAL = JAL560985 - 985th second generation MK I body by "Pressed Steel".
Gear box = HEH E 012486 - 2,486th close ratio top loader for Tiger contract.
Rear Axle = M64 1260 - 1,260th Dana 44, assembled 11/64.

Not sure how my axle could be from 11/64.

Who else has matching engine and trans numbers? Must be what they mean by "matching numbers"!

Well, it got washed, vac'd, and another 100 or so miles.

Riding home from school, my daughter (11) asked if it would make it another 50 years like "Jake", the 1922 Model T that I take care of. I told her that I would take it as long as I can, but after that it's her job to keep it going...

And, thanks to the same daughter, we have cake! We didn't have any moonstone food coloring, so we had to go with blue.

Fantastic Birthday Present!

What a fantastic birthday present your daughter made! She is very talented. Hope the cake tasted as good as it looked!

Looks yummy. Happy BD!

BTW, the background frosting looks like it might be close to Moonstone on my screen.

its a great cake... but the body needs some wet sanding... the paintwork has some orange peel