Thank you Max for the quick reply.
I cannot see that there is any wear evident where you mentioned so that would rule out the mowers being automatics. However, I seem to recall reading that because of the failure of the automatics Victa continued to use the stock of automatic bases to produce a standard model 4.
Could this be a possibility?.
I am fairly sure that the mowers were original when I purchased them but I cannot guarantee this.
cheers
Pete