“MATCHING NUMBERS”

There is perhaps no folkway, no widely accepted idea in the old car hobby that makes as little sense as attaching extreme importance to “matching numbers.” That is, the car still has its born-with engine block – the number “match” the vehicle build record.

“Matching numbers” is routinely stated in ads, at auctions and at car shows as a boast. Many, perhaps even most, collector car enthusiasts attach great importance to this aspect of a car, but I dissent.

An engine block is a car part. Many parts have been changed over the decades that these old cars have existed. You’re kidding yourself if you automatically conclude that a car has “high integrity” simply because the engine block hasn’t been changed. If every other part of the engine has been changed, does it only become a deal-breaker when the block is changed?

I know, it may be that only the block is numbered and therefore it is the only engine component that can be verified as original. However, rebuilt and restored cars will likely include many, many new – non-born-with – components, and so at least an engine block with the original numbers allows you to cling to the belief that the car is “very original.” But you might very well be kidding yourself.

Certainly it is “interesting” when an especially old car still has its original engine block, and on very high-dollar collector cars I can understand how the presence of the original engine block might make sense as a tie-breaker when considering the purchase of two otherwise near-identical cars. But on every car? Every “driver”?

For my part, replacement of the engine block with a correct original one – one identical to the original – does not diminish the authenticity of the car. An engine block would not be changed for no reason, and so the presence of a replacement is actually a good sign that a problem with the born-with block has been rectified.

But then, my favorite part of collector cars is driving them. Yes, I also enjoy showing my cars occasionally, but that’s not why I own them. And if you have an interesting collector car with non-matching numbers and you believe that that fact knocks the value way down, let’s talk. I love a bargain, especially on a car that needed, and got, a new engine block.