telephone option in Gen 1 cars

[Bonneville Don]

I have owned a 1991 Silver/black NSX since 1997. I believe the car was first delivered in Southern California, probably Beverly Hills. It has a telephone that I think was original. I've run a Carfax and there are no entries until I purchased it. Does anyone know how to find out what dealer took delivery of the car and if they installed the phone? Does anyone know about how many cars were delivered with the phone option?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Bonneville Don

 

[drew]

NICB should know, you'll need to make friends with an investigator. There are some pay services on NICB, but not sure how granular. NICB can tell you which ship the car came in on and how long it was at port...crazy details all in the name of preventing auto theft.

CA DMV can do an archive record search for a fee. That should give you the dealer that registered the car.

No idea on phones, but that would be cool to get some old cell tower gear and make your own comm system... though the FCC would take a very dim view of that behavior, not advised

 

[Bonneville Don]

Thanks for your help. I live in Florida. Do you know if I could do an archive search over the California website? I did a Carfax and another service and both were absolutely worthless. Their first registration notice was in 1994 and the car was registered in California in 1991. Can you think of any other way to find out what dealer took delivery?
thanks much

 

[drew]

I recommend a private investigator in CA, they can get you the information you want, but it will cost you some Ben Franklin's. They will have a hook up with NICB.

Meanwhile, you're in luck: someone has revived the analog cell protocol with a SDR.

http://osmocom-analog.eversberg.eu/

 

[tucsonsx]

The phone was definitely installed by a dealer; it was not a factory option. It is a version of the Motorola Bag Phone. Mine still works and reads " No Service " when powered up. If, at some point, is has been locked and you do not know the 3 digit code that the person locking it used ( the owner would set and could change this 3 digit code ) it will read " Locked ". At that point you can unlock it using the 6 digit code that the mechanic at the installing dealer used to put it into service. That is, of course, if the mechanic wrote it down in the owner's manual or phone literature. Since this was considered top security level classified information the mechanics took a solemn vow to never do that and the dealers deleted the information immediately upon installation. In that case you have a locked phone with an obsolete protocol. I think mine that says " No service " is super cool and it attracts more attention at C&C and the car show than anything else about the car, especially by anyone under 30.