Vire 7 - Bulletin Board

How old is your Vire 7 ?

For the early Vire 7 engines, made in Finland by Valmet between 1973 and 1980, there was no particular pattern to the Serial Numbers - you just have to look them up in the table, below. From 1981 onwards it's easy to tell the age of a Vire engine directly from the Serial Number. The first two digits represented the year, and the other three the number of engines built, so the first engine that Valmet built in 1981 was Serial Number 81-001. At the start of each year, they changed the first two digits and reset the last three to 001, etc., so Serial Number 83-050 was the fiftieth engine built in 1983, and so on. Webmaster's Note: Thanks to Pertti Pajari at Power-Marin Oy in Finland for providing this information, and to Mauri Lindholm for forwarding it.

Valmet stopped manufacturing Vire engines in 1993, and production was transferred to Masnedo, in Denmark. They continued to use Valmet's numbering system, so Serial Number 99-020 was the twentieth engine built by Masnedo in 1999, and so on. When the year 2000 came, Masnedo continued to use the last two digits of the year as the prefix, so the numbers went back to 00-001. The system continued until production ceased in 2002 (Serial Number 02-???). Webmaster's Note: Thanks to Kurt at Masnedo for providing this information.

HELP ! Now that we know the first serial number used each year, we must now try to figure out approximately how many engines were made each year. So, please E-mail the Webmaster with your serial number - it doesn't matter whether or not you know the year of manufacture of your engine

Serial Numbers of Vire 7 Engines 1973 to 2002
Manufacturer

Year of
Manufacture

From
Serial Number

To Serial
Number*

Highest Known
Serial Number

Min. Number of
Engines Built

Valmet

1973

20001

21000

20377

377

Valmet

1974

21001

23000

22603

1603

Valmet

1975

23001

24000

23752

752

Valmet

1976

24001

24749

24672

672

Valmet

1977

24750

25599

25235

486

Valmet

1978

25600

27000

-

Valmet

1979

27001

30333

-

Valmet

1980

30334

80000

30868

535

Valmet

1981

81001

82000

-

Valmet

1982

82001

83000

-

Valmet

1983

83001

84000

-

Valmet

1984

84001

85000

-

Valmet

1985

85001

86000

-

Valmet

1986

86001

87000

-

Valmet

1987

87001

88000

-

Valmet

1988

88001

89000

-

Valmet

1989

89001

90000

-

Valmet

1990

90001

91000

-

Valmet

1991

91001

92000

91076

76

Valmet

1992

92001

93000

-

Valmet

1993

93001

94000

-

Masnedo

1994

94001

95000

Masnedo

1995

95001

96000

95048

48

Masnedo

1996

96001

97000

-

Masnedo

1997

97001

98000

-

Masnedo

1998

98001

99000

-

Masnedo

1999

99001

99999

-

Masnedo

2000

00001

01000

00042

42

Masnedo

2001

01001

02000

-

Masnedo

2002

02001

???

?

* Not all numbers were used every year

How old is your Vire BVR ?

For the older BV series, the numbers seem to consist of two digits, letters representing the model, and seven tailing digits. I believe, but I'm really only guessing, that the last two digits represented the year. So, for example, Serial Number 03-BVR-14437-70 was a Vire BVR built (probably) in 1970. If I'm wrong, or if you can confirm that I'm right, please E-mail me.

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