Reg plate dates

[jacksocket]

Hi all,
while looking through the growing number of wiki threads I found myself on the V8S/S4 page, specifically the ‘Other info area’…. and Year code against Numbers made table.
Is there a 4 year time shift at play here on the Suffix letters?
these don’t seem to line up with general info found on the interweb
e.g. clicky
I think it should look like:

What’s the consensus, can someone fix it?

regards,
steveS

[TurboTony]

Quite confusing until you realise that the year letter was a TVR system which did not follow the number plate sequence. They both happen to have a single letter for a year (not a calendar year in the case of registrations) and are not related. I do like your translation chart!

[jacksocket]

Thanks for the explanation Tony -
so it's a TVR thing !! I should have guessed....

cheers,
steveS

[S2Mike]

As Tony says, a TVR system, you should find the TVR code with a serial number on the large plate under the bonnet on the bulkhead, normally. But not always !!

[Challenger C4s]

No its not a TVR thing, it all started in about 1980 when North American ca makes and some Europeans decided on a 17 digit vehicle identity number (VIN No)which all car makers adopted from I think 1981.
the tenth digit has always ID'ed the year of manufacturer.

See Here http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Vehicle_Identificatio...

The problem with the OP list picture which is misleading in the way it says reg suffice but then actually shows the years of letter "prefix". As some of us oldies will remember C was '65, D was 66 etc until it all changed with E only being the first six months of '67

I hope that is of some help.
Cheers

Edited by Challenger C4s on Thursday 25th September 13:26