After 28 months of flightly flatnosing around, here is a fundamental restyle and update of the Fabulous Flatnose register! A lot has changed for the better.
New visions and new definitions
A new vision of this register on pre-production cars has grown and rooted over time, and will be used from now on. Instead of classifying i.e. ‘early and red cars’ or ‘cars with certain production flaws’ as pre-production cars, each category of Fabulous Flatnoses now has a stipulated definition to segregate different types of Fabulous Flatnoses. The categories are:
- The prototypes
- The pre-production cars
- The crash-test cars
- The production cars – existence recently confirmed
- The production cars – scrapped
- The production cars – existence unconfirmed
- Unidentified cars
- Non-original cars
Now each category has its own definition, each new addition will be judged on that.
For the pre-production cars, that mark an important transition from prototype to production, the definition reads ‘cars built in 1985 on the line (not by hand)’. Due to this new classification, only four (previously six) of originally seven pre-production cars are accounted for in the register now.
New category: Unidentified
A category of unidentified cars is added; cars of which it is unclear which one they are (mostly due to lack of a verified serial number) and if they are truly Fabulous Flatnoses. This category no longer counts as registered cars. The category is somewhat enigmatic marked out as ‘cars that may or may not be real Fabulous Flatnoses and may or may not already be in the register; the serial number is unknown’. Check the register-pdf in the Register tab for better understanding, if you wish.
The most famous car in this category is the MSL130 from multiple press photos:
If this license plate did truly belong to this car at the time or even if both depicted cars are in fact the same car after a facelift remains unclear.
Of course, the search for information on these cars will continue.
New additions
Five of the first 11 Fabulous Flatnoses turned out to be still around and were traced (with help from Roland Almborg) and added to the production car statistics. The interesting part is these five cars are all in Sweden and were registered as 900i, athough it were true T16 Fabulous Flatnoses. Apparently, most of the really early Fabulous Flatnose production cars weren’t sent to the USA – possibly because quality standards were not yet met.
Factsheet updated
The Fabulous Flatnose Factsheet in the Library is updated with the new definitions and classification.
Restyled register-pdf
The one and only register-pdf, in which the complete register can be found, got a pretty nice restyle and was expanded with some interesting information. It can be found in the Register tab.
Upgraded database
In the register-pdf, the database was upgraded. Alle the cars in the register are now in the database, that is sorted by category and serial number.
Updates galleries
The galleries, that can be found in the Register tab, have been updated according to the above changes and consummated due to overdue maintenance.