396 Carb date code anomaly on original unrestored 396 Corvette
Hello. First time posting. I have owned this car for almost 40 years and finally had it judged this past week for the first time. I've been an NCRS member since 1984 but never had the time to get the car judged or attend an event. Everyone was extremely Nice and welcoming and I had a great time. However during the Flight judging there was an anomaly on the date code of the carburetor. According to the judging Manual the date code should be a Julian date code. The carb reads however:
3868826-CS
List-3124
834
It has the correct GM part number and the correct list but the date code makes no sense for a Julian date code. The metering blocks all had the correct numbers. All of the top judges looked at it and no one had an explanation. The best explanation I heard was from a 200+ level judge who thought that that it was not a Julian date code but actually was August 3 of 64. He explained to me that Holley had a very long lead time in fabricating carburetors for GM so the date would actually fit the build of the car if was just a normal date code and the carb was made early in the run before a Julian day code system was instituted. I've checked online by Googling all these numbers and there was another 3124 with a 964 for the date code on a very old Ebay listing that sold in 2006. The judge who proposed this scenario said that if it was a service replacement there would be a four digit code. So it's obviously not a service replacement. Besides in 1968 if this was a Julian date code there were no Holley carburetors on Corvettes for 1968. So obviously 3124 was never placed on a GM car except a 1965 396. I checked and no other make of car had this Holley carb number that I could find, Gm or not. And it has a GM part number. I have owned the car since 1984 and I seriously doubt that anyone was counterfeiting carb numbers before that time. Besides it has the proper patina for the age of the car. If anyone else has an explanation for this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for any information.
3868826-CS
List-3124
834
It has the correct GM part number and the correct list but the date code makes no sense for a Julian date code. The metering blocks all had the correct numbers. All of the top judges looked at it and no one had an explanation. The best explanation I heard was from a 200+ level judge who thought that that it was not a Julian date code but actually was August 3 of 64. He explained to me that Holley had a very long lead time in fabricating carburetors for GM so the date would actually fit the build of the car if was just a normal date code and the carb was made early in the run before a Julian day code system was instituted. I've checked online by Googling all these numbers and there was another 3124 with a 964 for the date code on a very old Ebay listing that sold in 2006. The judge who proposed this scenario said that if it was a service replacement there would be a four digit code. So it's obviously not a service replacement. Besides in 1968 if this was a Julian date code there were no Holley carburetors on Corvettes for 1968. So obviously 3124 was never placed on a GM car except a 1965 396. I checked and no other make of car had this Holley carb number that I could find, Gm or not. And it has a GM part number. I have owned the car since 1984 and I seriously doubt that anyone was counterfeiting carb numbers before that time. Besides it has the proper patina for the age of the car. If anyone else has an explanation for this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for any information.
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