A couple of oddity's I remember from way back: A 66 Nova SS, 6cyl, glide on the floor 67 Malibu 4drHT, 396, 4spd, bench, no console
One of the rarest chevelles to find is a 1964 SS with a straight 6 banger. an all original one is rare to see now days so people want them. go figure.
I had a 64 Chevelle SS with a six, the SS package for a six was chrome valve cover, chrome air cleaner cover and chrome dip stick with tube! It had column shift, cloth bench seat and full SS wheel covers. Your right "why".
I had a '64 SS that was a 283 2bbl glide, with dual exahust. All factory untill I bastardized it with a DZ and a 4 speed.
Most likely special ordered by someone who wanted the flash of the SS Impala but wanted the six and three speed. It could have been a special promotion lost leader car too. "NEW SS Impala for only $xxxx one only at this price. sitting there with the six and three speed right beside a row of 327 automatic and four speed cars priced out a lot higher. The salesman would say, "Oh yes, it's down there on the end, why don't you take a look at these other ones while you are on the way down to it. All the sudden that 500 saving didn't look so good beside those 327 cars with radios and other goodies.
Several years ago, a friend bought a 1963 Chrysler Newport two-door sedan at an estate auction. It was a strange car. You could order anything from a 225 Six to a 413 in a '63. This one had a 225, three on the tree, buckets, and a console with shifter delete. It had a heater and the little cop caps. The build sheet was under the rear seat that documented the combination. Of course, it was what I call "Grandma Beige" with tan vinyl interior. The very cool square steering wheel was there, too.
I owned a 64 Nova SS with 6 and glide on the console,and a 73 GTO with 400,3 spd on floor,bench seat and AM radio.....no other options....not even the quarter window louvers,just plain glass
This reminds me of a black '56 Belair that a friends' Mom drove back in the 70's. It was factory ordered with the Corvette 265 dual quads and all, with a 3-speed OD tranny, fender skirts and continental kit. The guy who ordered it didn't take delivery so my friend's Dad who worked at the dealership bought it. My friend had the opportunity to buy the car a few years ago and still has it. I donated a '56 intake and carbs so he could put it back to stock.
My friend's dad told me this story years ago. He owned a Pontiac dealership in Louisiana in the late 40's right after WWII. Cars were on a strict allocation right after the war and were very hard to come by. One day a transport rolls up and unloads a new Pontiac that was green outside with a red interior. When he sees the car he is livid and calls the Pontiac rep, bitchin and moanin about a car nobody was going to buy and threatening to put it back on the transport and send it back. The rep tells him to go ahead and accept the car and he would see to it that it did not count against his allocation. He agrees and they park the car out on the lot. He swore to me that the car had not been out there over a couple of hours when a little Cajun man comes up and sees it. "Mais, cher, dats the car I been lookin for. You know nobody gots one like dis anywhere?" he hung the car on him for over list price. ;-)
Complete lack of common sense? Pay a shit load(for the times) for the SS option and hardtop and creating a morphadite.
strange combo. never seen a console like that without a shifter in it. I guess part of the SS option was the buckets and console, you would think it would be floor shift.
Strange and probably rare optioned car. I would much more prefer a complete opposite. I remember recently an original Road Runner for sale here in Norway, with a Hemi/MT floor shifter and a bench seat? (it was pretty stripped otherwise too, maybe had just a Vinyl roof iirc)
Kid I want to highschool with had a '56 4 door hard top with a factory 2x4 small block and a power slip. His grandparents gave it to him bought it that way new.
Here's the same kind of thing but with a recent time sequence. When I first moved from Carolina to Wisconsin, I had to give up my company car and buy a personal one. (this was back in 1993). I saw a wonderful all Black NEW 1993 Pontiac GrandAm GT Coupe on the lot. It had Air, 5-speed, Cruise, def, electric door locks every possible option but it had roll up windows! I thought that was alittle odd. The salesman said it was a custom order from the factory and it was never picked up and that's why it's still on the lot and marked down. I still bought it because it had the one year only High Output Quad 4 motor Rated at 185 hp but the dealer said showed me the original sticker sheet that said it had 200hp! It was a screamer that got 35mpg!
1964,,,Easter sunday..my mom n grandma n my lil brother n sister are T boned by a Buick 225...while they are in a cherry 1961 metropolitan ....evryone survives...mom tells the old man she mizses her lil red ragtop but she ain t drivin no more lil cars..they go to the local chevy dealer and order a 1964 Impala SS convert...black ...white top..black interior..bucket seats console...mom tries to drive one on the lot and finds when she shifters on console from 2nd to 3rd her head goes below.the dash...she s 4'10" tall...so they order the 64 SS Impala. With console..buckets and 3 speed on the column...car hangs in the family for 4 years n mom sells.it to her kid brother....she s in love.with the 68 GTO convert..orders it same way...400 4 bbl...3speed on the column ...buckets and console.. teases the old man she s going to spend friday nites at Lawerenceburg dirt round track racing it...sat nites at Edgewater drag racing it...so the old man goes back to the.dealer and has it changed to a 68 CatLina...convert...bucket seats...console..3sp on the tree...car gats delivered and mom cries for 2weeks straight over it not being a GTO For years she hated that car...till 75 when it got t boned....years later she thanked him....when i took jer a ride in my 69GTO...ir was stock but way faster then that big ass catalina...she come to.releasie i ld probably never made it from 16 to 17 drivin a GTO...especially. seeing as how i had blown the catalina 400while.it.was.under warranty doing hole.shots...broke camshaft on over revv...i told.her it.needed.a.tach Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app
Yup..years ago a couple of little old ladies would go by our house every Saturday morning (grocery shopping?) in a plum purple 70-71 Challenger with its slant six ticking away under the hood. A few years later my brother also owned that vintage of Challenger with a slant six under its hood. The strange thing about his Challenger was that it was also an SE model ,otherwise loaded to the hilt with options
My '65 Impala SS was ordered with a 283/2bbl and three speed overdrive and a bench seat. Dad helped me buy it from the original owner in 1972. I wish I had it back but it didn't fare well with a 16 year old punishing it daily. It went to the crusher in 1975. My next door neighbor has a '69 Chevelle SS396 with a column shift automatic and bench seat. The local Chevelle guru didn't believe him that it was a factory setup until he came and checked out the VIN and looked up information on the car in some Chevelle guru bible.
To bad that you cannot order cars today like you could back then. With todays order sheets you are just to limited but I guess it could be said that cars are not what they once were.
My local GM dealer told me that we can still order a new camaro in white, IE sans everything to build a race car from it. I'll bet if you walked into about any dealership around any block you wouldn't be able to find that out. There are probably a lot of options available on any given make or model if you just know how to go about it. Dealers don't particularly care for special orders, they want to sell you what they have on the lot and already owe for. Sometimes it all a matter of knowing what boxes to check and getting someone to check them for you.
Sometimes things were weird. Back in the day if you ordered deluxe interior you might get SS package. I had a 66 Nova SS with a 327-350 hp L-79, it was a 3spd on the column with a bench seat. But it was a screw up. An older gentleman ordered it with the SS package and a 283 and 3spd. Well, someone checked the wrong box. It was a little monster and with a load of people for traction would run the quarter in second gear just a rompin and stompin.One of 4 according to Doug Marion of Super Chevy mag. Lippy
This raises a good question--what was the last American car that you could get with a 3 on the tree? Junkyard near my house has a '76 Nova with 6 and 3 on the tree. That's the newest American car that I remember seeing with 3 on the tree.
"My next door neighbor has a '69 Chevelle SS396 with a column shift automatic and bench seat. The local Chevelle guru didn't believe him that it was a factory setup until he came and checked out the VIN and looked up information on the car in some Chevelle guru bible." I owned the exact same thing in '73. Bought it used, a friends older brother had ordered it new. Never thought of it to be that uncommon at the time. Another older guy in town had a rare (ordered new) 300 post SS396/375, 4spd, bench. Knew that one was a rarity.
owned many early camaro/firebirds and mustangs with bench seats and auto on column. had a few 66 SS nova's with 250/pg in them. Can you imagine the amount of research it would take to find all the right options since they varied from different areas.
I think these come about because some people like the sporty cars but don't know enough about mechanical things to think there is a real difference in 6s and v8s. I once saw an original 64 Impala special ordered by a woman. It had the bucket seat interior and all of the SS stuff on the inside but it wasn't an SS and had no SS badges anywhere. She just wanted it that way. I used to own a 67 Fairlane GTA convertible that had the 390 four barrel GT engine but had the automatic on the column and console delete.
I had a 65 with 283/2brl. column shift SS Imp. wish i had it today nice car, could float the valves till the cows came home never blew up.
There is an old fellow around here who used to bring a late 60's Impalla SS 2 door with a three on the tree. Haven;t seen it or him in a couple years, so he may have passed. He also had a supercharged studebaker Hawk withthe same set up.
My dad in the 60's had a beautiful looking powder blue 1968 Caddilac coupe with no vinyl roof. It was a Calais series, not a DeVille. It had the cheaper loop style carpeting instead of the upscale cut pile, no power seat, no power windows, no power vent windows, no tilt, and no air conditioning. Had only one option, tinted windows all around. It was Cadillac's Chevy Caprice price beater. It was worthless 2 years later when he went to trade it. An Impala or Malibu had more trade in value.
Bought a 73-'75(cant remember exactly but it was one of those 3 years) Malibu off of the 3rd owner. No carpet(from factory) rubber mats,350 2-barrel,3 on the tree with a 3:08 posi and no rear defrost. Odd.
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