IF THESE PHOTOS EXCITE YOU …

I spent much of the last couple of days working on the recently acquired project car mentioned in several previous posts, and while we – that’s Kent Lambert and me – were at it I took the opportunity to get photos of those numbers inscribed on the carb bodies of the “Le Mans Kit” carbs that show them to be the real deal.  Note the “6047” and “6053” in these photos, and if your heart beats a little faster as you do, then you get it.

However, one thing I don’t get it this:  The Healey cognoscenti look for the style in which those digits are rendered.  In other words, they have to be in just the right hand, the right penmanship.  OK, but how can it be that over the course of the years when these were made, only one person inscribed them all?  He never took a day off?  Never got sick?  Never got a promotion or even a new assignment?

“OK Tommy, your job today here at ACME Carburetter Inscribing Ltd., just as it has been for the last 2,347 days, is to inscribe the SU H6 carbs with the numbers … you know the ones!  Yes, 6047 and 6053!  And watch that penmanship.  Consistency is our motto.  Don’t let us down!”

Kinda weird, don’t you think?  The exact same penmanship, inscribed by the same guy, over the course of years.  But here’s the real kicker: No one knows what those inscribed numbers mean.  Oh, they’re real, real important to authenticate the carbs as correct components of the Le Mans Kit, but without known meaning.

It’s like a cult or something.