Читать книгу Lost Muscle Cars - Wes Eisenschenk - Страница 18
ОглавлениеIn muscle car terminology, the word “rare” is usually associated with increased value. As with coins, stamps, artwork, etc., the fewer examples in the marketplace, the greater the value. Rare muscle cars are no different.
Seafrost Green is a rare color for any Chevy muscle car, let alone an L78 1968 Nova SS. With just 667 L78 copies made, it’s safe to say that Sea-frost Green on this car makes it unique. (Photo Courtesy Mike Dolence)
When the Big Three began building American iron, rare wasn’t a word cared about or associated with preserving a vehicle. If it had been, Chrysler would have a warehouse full of 1971 Hemicuda convertibles aging like a fine wine. Rare came to mean that not enough people could afford one, knew about the dazzling array of options available, or even wanted one.
Some cars were built in extremely low volume due to increased costs. Convertibles typically fall into this category. Ordering a 1969 Trans Am added $725 to the bill of your Firebird. Add the convertible option on your order and it could reach $1,500 over the base price of a standard Firebird. Add another $500 in creature comforts and your base $3,000 Firebird checks out at the register at $5,000. Although these amounts don’t sound like much today, it would be equivalent of adding $20,000 worth of options on a $30,000 vehicle. In the end, the ultimate Trans Am was never constructed, as none of the eight convertible buyers checked off the Ram Air IV powerplant.
A base 1969 Road Runner could be had for less than $3,000. Add the Hemi and the components paired with it and you’ve just added $1,000 to your bill. Around 84,000 1969 Road Runners were built, fewer than 900 with the Hemi.
Another aspect of low sales volume is the lack of sales staff knowing an option even existed at the time. In 1969 Chevrolet built more than 86,000 Chevelle SS cars. Of those, just 400 units came with the L89 aluminum head option. These cars are rare simply because factory literature at the time didn’t list the L89 as an option. Without it on the sales sheet, sales staff couldn’t “upsell” it to customers.
The survival rate of rare factory-built muscle cars typically exceeds that of their regular production counterparts. Convertibles have always been perceived as special. Hence of the eight 1969 Trans Am convertibles produced, all eight are well documented and accounted for.
