In short
- A chassis code names a body, not an engine, a trim or a model year.
- It survives because it separates cars a model name alone leaves ambiguous.
- Codes are not standardised between manufacturers and some cars have several.
- Thirteen of the cars drawn here are known by a code, and each one links to its drawing below.
A chassis code is the manufacturer’s own short name for a particular body, used long after the sales brochure has been forgotten. Owners use it because it identifies one shape precisely where a model name and a year often do not.
The short answer
A chassis code is the manufacturer’s own short name for a particular body. NA is a Mazda MX-5 body, EP3 is a Honda Civic body, R34 is a Nissan Skyline body. Owners use codes because they identify one shape exactly, where a model name usually covers several shapes and a registration year does not always match the car that was built.
It is a label for a body rather than a specification. That is the single most useful thing to know about codes, and the thing most often assumed the other way round.
Why owners use them
Say “Mazda MX-5” and you have named four different cars built across more than thirty years. Say “NB” and you have named one body. That precision is the whole reason codes survive in owner language long after the manufacturer has stopped using them in public.
A registration year is a weaker identifier than it looks. It records when a car was first registered, not when it was built or which version it is, and a car registered in the first months of a new shape can easily be the old one. The journal covers that separately in model year against registration year.
Codes matter here for a practical reason too. Each car in this catalogue is a separate drawing of one body, so a code maps almost exactly onto a drawing.
Codes in this catalogue
Thirteen of the cars drawn here are commonly known by a code. Years come from the catalogue and describe the car in the drawing rather than the whole generation.
- NA Mazda MX-5 NA 1989 to 1997. The pop-up headlight MX-5.
- NB Mazda MX-5 NB 1998 to 2005. The first MX-5 with fixed headlights.
- NC Mazda MX-5 NC 2005 to 2008. The larger third generation, early face.
- ND Mazda MX-5 ND 2015 to 2018. The current shape, soft top or RF roof.
- EK9 Honda Civic Type R EK9 1997 to 2000. The first Civic Type R.
- EP3 Honda Civic Type R EP3 2001 to 2005. The three door hatch Type R.
- FN2 Honda Civic Type R FN2 2007 to 2011. The wedge shaped Type R.
- FK8 Honda Civic Type R FK8 2017 to 2021. The turbocharged Type R.
- FL5 Honda Civic Type R FL5 2023 to now. The current Type R.
- DC5 Honda Integra Type R DC5 2001 to 2006. The Integra Type R that followed the DC2.
- R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 1989 to 1994. The Skyline GT-R that restarted the name.
- R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R R33 1995 to 1999. The longer, heavier GT-R.
- R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 1999 to 2002. The last Skyline to wear GT-R.
Every code above opens that car’s builder. The rest of the catalogue is in the full list of cars drawn so far, including the ones better known by a name than a code.
What a code does not tell you
Three things a code will not settle, all of which get assumed regularly.
The engine. A code names a body. Where two engines share that body, both cars carry the same code, and only the specification separates them. The MX-5 NA is the clearest example in this catalogue, with a 1.6 and a 1.8 under one code.
The facelift. Mid life changes happen inside a single code. A body can be restyled at the front and keep its code, which is why some models here are drawn twice with one code between them. That is covered in why a facelift needs a separate drawing.
The individual car. A code is shared by every example built. Only a VIN identifies one vehicle, and what a VIN can confirm has its own limits.
When a car has two names
Codes are not standardised. Each manufacturer invents its own scheme, some cars pick up more than one code, and a few well known cars are called something different here than in an enthusiast forum.
This site uses the names Jonathan has sold under for years, because those are the names customers type. Where a car is widely known by a code that is not printed on its poster, that is a naming difference rather than a disagreement about which car it is. The same decision is recorded for Fiesta generation numbers, which do not agree between markets and are kept consistent across the whole catalogue rather than corrected car by car.
Finding yours
If the code matches a car above but the years do not cover yours, look at the front of your car before assuming the list is wrong. A restyled face is the usual explanation, and the two faces are separate drawings here.
Questions people actually ask
- What is a car chassis code?
- It is the manufacturer’s internal short name for a particular body or platform. Owners adopt it because it identifies one shape exactly, where a model name covers several shapes and a registration year does not always match the car.
- What does EP3 mean?
- EP3 is Honda’s code for the three door Civic body used by that generation of Type R. Saying EP3 identifies the shape without needing a year, a trim level or a market name alongside it.
- Is a chassis code the same as a VIN?
- No. A VIN identifies one individual vehicle and is unique to it. A chassis code identifies a body shared by many thousands of cars. A VIN can help confirm which body you have, but the two answer different questions.
- Do all cars have a chassis code?
- Most have an internal designation, but only some enter common use. Codes stick where owners needed a way to separate similar cars, which is why Japanese performance models are known by them and many ordinary cars are not.
- Does the chassis code tell you the engine?
- Not reliably. Some codes happen to correspond to one engine in one market, but a code names a body. Where two engines share a body, the code is the same for both and the specification block is what separates them.
Written by Jonathan in Derby. Last updated .