[MrBIWLongbridge]

My first post so please be gentle with me !
I have a 1998 216 Cabriolet that I have owned from new ( it was my management car at Longbridge). It was built at the very end of production of the cabbie and is possibly the last one built. I would like to prove or disprove this and wonder if anyone knows if there is any way of checking against the VIN number. Even this will still have an element of doubt as it was a bodyshell that I located in the training school at the end of production and managed to pull a lot of strings to get scheduled in to the build and allocated to me with the lease company. In short the body may have been built earlier and pulled off line for repairs and therefore an earlier build.
Still an interesting exercise if anyone has any ideas ?

Many thanks

Ian W

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Hi welcome to the club! you need to talk to Jeremy otherwise known as Montegoman

You might well know GTIJohn he used to work at Longbridge at that time I think, in Steering brakes & suspension ?

[Montegoman]

Unfortunately, when you joined the club, you didn't include your car's VIN so I have no idea where it is in the build sequence. If you can provide a VIN I will check against our database.

[MrBIWLongbridge]

SAXXWMBZEWD926701

Any help greatly appreciated.

Ian

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Hi Ian,
does your cabby have the airbag fitted? R8 with a D16 & the tea shelf dash?

[Montegoman]

The last R8 built was a Tourer, VIN 935124. The latest Cabriolet known to the club is 934813. Yours is 8,000 off that and the final R8s were only built in small numbers per week, so it was some weeks from the end as far as body structure is concerned but as you know, they didn't always go down the line in numerical order as some bodies would be pulled off the line for various reasons.

[MrBIWLongbridge]

Hi,
Many thanks for the update. Disappointing news but not surprising.
I found the bodyshell towards the end of R8 build in West Works training department. Training was perhaps a euphemism! This area handled all of the body damage that was deemed beyond the remit of the production boneyards. It was also an opportunity to let trainees loose on fairly major strip downs. My shell could have been returned from Paint or even final build if it had got damaged and then lay around awaiting repair.
That said this car has had a long and interesting life, 135k miles a good percentage of which have been touring Europe, it was our wedding car in it's early life ( hence I was under pressure to get a white cabriolet for her wedding and honeymoon). Unfortunately it is looking sadly neglected and approaching me having to make a decision to either put some time and money in to her or regrettably we may have to part ( the cabriolet not the wife !!!! )

To Mr Teddy Bear... I'm not sure what the 'tea shelf' dash is but it has the 'bubble' dash and yes to the airbag.

Thanks all