OK, Firstly, to repair the cord:
You will notice a small notch in the drum that cord winds onto (See picture below) if you pull the cord bach through the hole (do not dissasemble the starter) in the top of the cowl, enough to have it pass out of this notch, you should be able to increase the spring tension by winding it around 2-3 times in an anti clockwise direction.
THIS VIDEO should also be helpful, just remember to go anti-clockwise instead, as your starter is reversed to the one in the video.
I think it's likeley that this model is exactly how victa intended, IE, the stickers and location are correct.
The export only models may well relate to machines that were very spe3cific to their export markets, and required different parts codes, however this mower is practically identical to a VC-Sports, aside from a couple of slight variations that I have found relate to the export version of the sports.
I Imagine that for the export version of the sports, they felt no need to re-catagorise the mower, they simply added the export requirmentrs (One of which I have found, is that interesting spark plug boot, it contains a supressor) and gave it a different sticker.
