Reply to "Engine Serial Number"

chassis were not assembled in numerical order.

DeTomaso purchased Pantera coaches in "lots", the size of the "lots" possibly determined by Embo's specified minimum order size. Detomaso would specify the coaches to be stamped with number xxxx to number xxxx. Upon completion the coaches were loaded onto the truck at Carrozeria Embo (Turin) in no specific numerical order, a whole "lot" may have been shipped at once, or they may have been shipped in small numbers as they were completed in Turin.

Upon arrival at DeTomaso (Modena) the coaches were not unloaded in numerical order. They were not stacked in the DeTomaso yard in any order either. As subsequent truck loads of coaches arrived at DeTomaso, with later numbered coaches, the newest load of coaches may have been stacked in front of the coaches with earlier numbers.

When the assembly guys went out to the yard to grab a new coach, they didn't check chassis numbers, they just grabbed the chassis closest to the door. The chassis with the earliest number may have been way at the back, buried behind several coaches with later numbers.

Take for example, the first GT5 is numbered 9250, yet there are GT5's built subsequently with smaller chassis numbers; off the top of my head the smallest I can think of is 9159. 9203 & 9207 are also smaller!

You never know David, 9207 may have preceded yours in production.

cowboy from hell