Yours is already on the list !
I found it when Josh came with all the Rose mist VINs. It's the brother of RM #13 (a RHD too).
1) Interesting this export code
RC 9H... Sadly, my informations on export countries aren't complete. The only thing I have rode on a mustang forum is that the letter may vary from "A" to around "F" IIRC. Then, "9" is for identitying the car for export and the letter is for the specific country, but now, we know that "H" is for Japan (probably no mustang in Japan at that time...). (Codes for US states will be RC with 2 numbers for the region. Canada will be "B" with a number for region.)
Fun facts on RHD SHOs :
- Mostly all are Silver
- Some very rares were in Rose mist (these are the only 2 colors for RHD SHOs, for RHD SLOs they also came in black)
- All RHD SHOs had a purple interior...
2) It's an
early roll, probably a pre-production one. Even if the production date is february 2nd 1996, his construction started somewhere between the 20th november and the 20th december 1995... Long before his selling period. I know that by comparing some SLO VIN from the same assembly line (Atlanta). Another thing is the car came from a very small batch/wave. Many SHO had "brothers" with sequential VIN, this may say that these couple of SHOs were probably following each other on the production line. Often these SHOs has/had the same equipment and were ordered by the same sale district (RC XX). The beginining of the Gen 3 SHOs production was by "batches" or "waves" between bigger SLOs batches. It was for some practicals reasons (training employees on new equipments to bolt on, save time, better error tracability, etc...) This one is from a very small batch, this other fact let me think that it was a pre-production car too. Moreover, later in the 96 year, we can see a lot more bigger batches even for RHD, like the first known big one beginning on the 5th march 1996. Later in 1996 (second half of the year), we can see by the VINs that singles SHOs were produced more often between SLOs (lesser use of "batches").
3) The
delay in the production (date variations between SHO and SLO production dates for similar VINs, adding SLO VINs from Atlanta allow more deductions and infos) may suggest some facts. These date variations suggest that even if the car's production was started for some time on the same SLOs line (similars VINS), the first SHOs for some reasons was put aside and exit the factory later (non concordents dates for similars VINs between SLOs and SHOs). When we read the first road tests reviews at the fall of 1995, critics were cold because the engine had only 225 hp which is was only 10 more than the V6 and we can read on some reviews that Ford re-called them in factory to upgrade them to 235 hp. This may explain the delay, the car returned (or stayed) to factory to be reprogrammed during some months between december and february. This theory is also conforted by the new ECM code : ZBA2 (for this specific case). My searches on ECM codes not allowed me to know which were all caracters were for but I know for sure that the last number is for the version of the software (I had earliers export SHOs with ZBA0 ECM code). According to the VIN and the production date, this one probably exit the factory with the ZBA0 code but returned some time to gain the ZBA2 code.
4) I'm almost sure that you now have the 2nd earliest Gen 3 SHO known by the community of owners (LFD+RHD). (Congratulations !) The first one was 1falxxxxxta
134477 (exit the factory on 13th february 1996 but his production started in factory around 10-15 september 1995 too...). Owned by a guy from Ohio state in 2010 who posted on TCCA some questions to others owners to confirm that his new car was a true SHO or not complaining his one didn't have sunroof, keyless entry and mags... (a silver one too). The 3rd earliest known, is a reported cam failure in 2003 on V8SHO site (a US SHO built on 12th february 1996).
I don't want to know how it cost to ship a car from New Zealand to America...
