Mind you, they do in certain other respects. But is that important to you?
Matching numbers has become a magic password. A household notion, even: I’ve even observed French, German and Italian car enthusiasts not particularly well-spoken in English yet still using the term – and part of the explanation for that might be that they actually don’t have a term for the concept in their own language. Which sort of indicates just how abstract the whole concept is. It all centres on the matter of whether a certain classic car is still today, many years later, equipped with the hardware it left the factory with: Mostly, enthusiasts focus on the engine but as some manufacturers also had individual ID-numbers on transmissions, differentials and in some cases even suspension and body parts the matter can indeed become very nerdy.
However it’s also very superficial: The engine number is usually stamped into the block and it recently struck me that this is only a small part of an engine. Have you thought about how much is actually INSIDE of an engine block?
That exact thought struck me while I was moving a Triumph engine block the other day – yes, I have several. I then proceeded with cleaning up some of my stock of spare parts including placing a lot of loose parts right from connecting rods to valve gear on shelves. The thought process then continued during my vacation as I visited the Prototype Museum in Hamburg and enjoyed the spectacle of various engines in more or less disassembled condition. The fact of the matter is, that an engine consists of much, much more than just an engine block.
Nevertheless, the engine block number, more than anything else, has become a crucial element in the evaluation of collector cars – of course depending somewhat on the cars in question. But it’s now become a buzzword which you recognise even when overhearing car enthusiasts discuss their passion at car shows in languages you don’t even understand. Which is a completely artificial and bizarre thing to consider when you view an engine in all its individual parts, realising how many of them there really are. And cranks, connecting rods, pistons and cylinder heads are hardly insignificant small parts either, are they?
But the whole phenomenon of “matching numbers” and the importance of it is also a relatively new phenomenon: If you browse through old auction catalogues you will actually find lots of rare, fine and exotic automobiles without the slightest mention of the engine number versus the build sheet. Maybe it has simply become so popular because more investors (or less knowledgeable car enthusiasts) have entered the market and they now need a simple code language to classify the cars? It is not quite clear to say but that could be one explanation.
What IS clear though, is that the value of those numbers is absolutely real: In the Porsche world, a 911 without matching numbers is clearly worth less than one with. But is that necessarily important? No, not for those of us who are on an active driving regimen in our classics and have a more holistic view of classic cars. Personally, I would not hesitate so much as a second to buy a classic without matching numbers – and maybe I already have done: For example, I genuinely don’t know whether my Interceptor is matching or not. Or whether Jensen were indeed able to keep records of that kind at all? And I actually do not care. The price of my car reflected its condition, and so will the price of it when I sell it to the next enthusiast. Meanwhile I have a fantastic car and thoughts of engine numbers play no part in that. It is, in the context of enjoying a great car, deeply insignificant.
The same school of thought should apply to those looking at Porsche 911’s, Jaguar E-types and all sorts of other classic cars: Yes, the value of the non-matching car will be lower – but when buying a pretty expensive classic isn’t that a good thing? You will not be able to tell the difference behind the wheel, trust me on that. Just remember that when time comes to sell the car again, you can’t expect to match the prices achieved by matching number cars. Unless this pretty new fad suddenly loses actuality again, of course.
