Jack,
by saying "went the way of the Automatic" what I meant was (that's becoming a common saying for me

) the surplus parts were reused in other models. Certainly a electric utility is ill-conceived, the whole point of a utility is portability to mow 'remote' areas, the last place you'd consider power being available let alone being tethered by a cord!
Bigted,
If you take a pick of the underside we can see if it has kept the original victa blade setup or something else.
Counted holes today.
There are three square aperture holes plus one round hole on the upper outer ring.
There are three (I think) round holes on the inner sunken ring
There are the three holes in use for the engine mount which (like bigted) I believe have been drilled to mount the engine, in a middle ring area just outside the inner sunken ring. As you can see from the pic below the bolts plus nuts are "normal". Should they be Nyloc?
Also, I don't see any mount holes for the red front 'bumper' and handle in the photo of the electric you've shown?
Underneath/blade photos: Here we go...
(Older photo) from the rear...
From the front...
Mounting bolt/nuts from underneath
Cheers,