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