For anyone interested, I recently wrote up a reinvestigation of the various legends surrounding the Franz Ferdinand's car and posted the results here:
http://blogs.forteana.org/node/118
I'm grateful to various forum members for posting information that was useful in the writing of this article. A couple of conclusions are worth mentioning here:
- With regard to the "death car" legend, I was unable to trace this back further than Frank Edwards' notorious potboiler
Stranger Than Science (1959), which is not a reputable source. All the secondary sources that allege various deaths were associated with the car imply it was in private hands till c.1926, so I have submitted an enquiry to the Military Museum in Vienna and requested a check of accession records to see if the car actually became part of the museum collections before that date, as is implied on this board occurred. If I get a response, I'll update my article.
- It is worth noting, however, that the vehicle still bears bullet holes dating to 28 June 1914, which would seem pretty implausible if the vehicle had been extensively repaired on at least three occasions, as required by the death car legend. I believe this in itself is really enough to demolish the myth.
- With regards to the number plate, the coincidence certainly is remarkable. Don't forget, though, that it's much more remarkable to a Brit than it would be to an Austrian, because the number plate's "A for Armistice" is meaningless to a German speaker (the German for 'armistice' is 'waffenstillstand'), and the date 11-11-18 occurred a week after the Austro-Hungarian army was knocked out of the war (armistice signed on 3 November, coming to effect on 4-11-18).
Cheers and thanks again for posting so much good-quality information.