On my vin tag of my 67GT500 there is a big Z stamped before the vin number. I have been told different stories of what it means. One guy said it meant it had outboard headlights, however my has inboards and according to SAAC it always has had them. Another guy told me it was a quality check thing saying the car was ready to ship. I'm just curious if anyone know for sure what it is. I've seen this mark on other 67's.
I believe the "Z" stamping didn't indicate whether or not your car had inboard or outboard grille lights. Someone once told the "Z" simply meant that the style of inboards on your car were legal in the dealers state that the car was being shipped to. My Shelby has the inboards & my vin has the "Z" stamp. My car was shipped to Monroe, Louisiana, back in the day; so apparently inboards were legal there. I'm not sure if this really is correct information or not as I've never researced the subject but it might explain why both inboard & outboard Shelby's may have the "Z" stamp on the Vin tag????? Anybody else know for sure???? David
That may be true. My car was sold in Albequrque, New Mexico. I asked the 67 Shelby registar for SAAC a couple of years ago and he was not sure only that some cars have them and he thought it had something to do with head lights.
This comes right out of the 1997 SAAC registry: Most(but not all)cars with outboard headlights have a "Z" preceding the serial number on the vin tag. It is still not known exactly what the "Z" means For instance, my early model 67, (0036) has inboard head lights, but no Z on the vin tag. I have seen other cars with inboard headlights and also no Z.
I think then that dv67shelby's answer must be right. His car does have the Z and does have inboards like mine. His is even an earlier car than mine. I guess both our cars were shipped to states where inboards were legal and the z must verify legality before shipment?.
My 67, that I have owned since June 1977 has out-board headlights and the Z proceeding the serialnumber on the plate. Dave Mathews, the 67 SAAC registrar wrote an article where he thought it was a quality checkmark. Shelby had quality problems and many cars had to be sent back so he ordered all cars to be inspected before being shipped out to dealers. The inspector then just marked the plate with the Z by hand. This makes sense to me as the Z is different on all cars. Some very deep and distinctive and on others hardly visible. /Texas Swede
The "Z" is just on later cars. No relationship to anything. It was just used and no one really know why.
My old car, #2090, had the Z stamp before the serial number, and it had inboard headlights from the factory. It was shipped to a dealer in Nebraska.
My car is not what you call late #1317 with outboard lights and it has the Z. Have owned the car since 1977 and it was delivered to Stockton Ford in L.A. I bet Dave Mathews the SAAC registrar is correct when he believes it's a quality check mark. Nothing else make much sense really. /Texas Swede