well... see post #21 as to how it will get harder & harder to tell in the future.

At the time on that date... That car for one had the factory jcw side skuttle...& @ the time, I do not believe the challenge wheels were available other than on the factory car (were they the Challenge rims or another on the one you bought? I've yet to see Challenge rims on a non-JCW bought from a dealership and not from the 2ndary market).... & the car had the factory body kit with painted wheel arches, which I believe only started at the '09 JCWs started coming out. edit: oh yes, and the nicely recessed large rear tailpipe tips is totally Factory JCW @ the time... S's stick out more with a thicker rounded pipe for the tip. In either case, all can easily be added, looping us back to post #21 & my complaint of how little uniqueness we JCW buyers got for our up-charge. But at the time being a US car & how they were coming in it's nearly indisputable that it was the factory JCW from those indicators & not a clone on the dealership lot just days after the JCWs were released from the VDCs.

 

definitly a factory JCW.

Different countries have different exterior setups.

the factory aero is different than the optioned one. (hope I did not repeat to much!)

 

Thanks, I was just wondering how you guys could tell from the front pic that I saw.

I understand that the wheels were only on a Challenge car but you can't see the wheels from that pic.

Thanks,

Mark

 

Uhhh, maybe I'm missing something, but did you happen to also see the other pics below the front pic, Orangecrush? There's two other views of the same car in the attached thumbnails which is where they saw the wheels.

 

Factory JCW (Stage 2's) have the JCW badge in the lower driver's side grille. Stage 1 JCW's have the badge on the upper right passenger side grille.

 

The JCW badging in the lower right corner of the aero kit(in the picture) - driver side - is the first clue, combined with factory challenge wheels, side scuttles, fat tail pipes and rear badging finally confirms it.

 

....um, there's 4 pics in the 1st post. [!]

 

Well, that's wierd.... how did I miss them? Perhaps I thought it was a sig pic and never looked close enough.

My bad.... thanks.


Mark