There you go, it certainly makes sense, Zinc plating cost more, and at the time Victa wanted to offer a cheaper mower, without taking away from the main design features of the VC-160, such as the catcher size, decompression based Zip start system, G3 carby, dual fold handles and hi-arch chute.
Wow, only a small detail, but very important, and when it comes to VC's, I do love to learn new things!!
