I confirm that Doug is on board with this and attach an email received from him, slightly edited for the purpose of this, and forthcoming, Cooper threads:-
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Doug Nye
Regarding the Cooper book chassis-production lists, I make it plain that what I have reproduced there is the chassis record information drawn direct from the few surviving factory ledgers. They will - plainly - be in part a work of convenient fiction to minimise tax liability. They are also - however - the only surviving contemporary record of which serial was formally applied to which customer's order. There is, of course, absolutely NO guarantee that such serial numbers were then actually stamped into chassis plates attached to the relevant frame...
In short, one might as well refer to the cars as 'Tom', 'Dick' and 'Harry'...and have pretty much the same chance of reflecting what was Cooper reality back in the 1940s and '50s.
You are very welcome to quote from those lists, they are based directly upon the only surviving known works record, after all..
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Well, of course, we won't call them 'Tom, Dick or Harry' but if you've read the book you will understand Doug's point!
Incidentally, this is Pieter's baby, I've just helped (hopefully) to smooth the way!