I was looking at the option list for that '69 SS427. It had fender skirts but no optional wheel equipment, meaning in this case, dog dish hubcaps on body-coloured 15x6 wheels with white stripe G70-15s. In '68 the P01 wheelcovers came on SS427s when the cars also had buckets (Z03 Super Sport), but in '69 there was no such inclusion by default. What could they have been thinking when they spec'd this one, it was 1950? Certainly not, based on the drive-train. Aftermarket mags with fender skirts? 3.07 rear with M21 close-ratio is not ideal and is rather specialized towards high speed driving. It doesn't have upgraded suspension, but I guarantee the L72 option affected spring rates & base equipment.
What colour was the top originally? I don't see it mentioned at all. White would have harmonized the whitewalls & parchment interior. Weirdly they mention the heater / defroster (C41) but that was default, and the newly-standard Astro Ventilation was C56 (not listed).
I love weird cars.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
As this was a drum brake car, I thought it would have come with 14" wheels. Or did the 427 cars come with 15"? "Inquiring minds want to know".
The VVS says option P90 for G70-15-4Ply whitewalls which I find interesting because I'm 99% sure my 69 Parisienne LS1 option 427 convertible had body colour 14" X 6" rims on it.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
There were a total of 7 full-sized Chevrolets brought into Canada with L72 power, be it Biscayne, Impala SS427, coupe, sedan, convertible, wagon, whatever.
if I was seriously thinking of buying this car I would order a new set of Docs for it. Just saying
Here are the documents from 2004 when I viewed the car . On the 2004 version , it does clearly state Burnish Brown which is a fairly rare color for 1969. Also shown are the details of the engine block stampings, and it is a 512 block
There is also a documented L72 /M22 Biscayne with this color in the Toronto area
There were a total of 7 full-sized Chevrolets brought into Canada with L72 power, be it Biscayne, Impala SS427, coupe, sedan, convertible, wagon, whatever.
Where did you get this information from Cam?
I had received it from a guy in Windsor who has a documented 1969 Impala SS427 Sport Coupe that was sold new in Canada. I have been digging for the last day or so but haven't found the documentation. It may have gone with a departed drive. There was VVS documentation on that car that gave the L72 stats as being X number of cars.
I said their were 7 L72 big cars, it may have actually only been 6 cars for 1969. I really would love to find that e-mail from year's ago that spelled it out. I'll keep looking because we all like facts as opposed to vague recollections.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
There were a total of 7 full-sized Chevrolets brought into Canada with L72 power, be it Biscayne, Impala SS427, coupe, sedan, convertible, wagon, whatever.
Where did you get this information from Cam?
I had received it from a guy in Windsor who has a documented 1969 Impala SS427 Sport Coupe that was sold new in Canada. I have been digging for the last day or so but haven't found the documentation. It may have gone with a departed drive. There was VVS documentation on that car that gave the L72 stats as being X number of cars.
I said their were 7 L72 big cars, it may have actually only been 6 cars for 1969. I really would love to find that e-mail from year's ago that spelled it out. I'll keep looking because we all like facts as opposed to vague recollections.
It seems that VVS doesn't always remain consistent from year to year. We've seen different figures for SD converts (identical models) etc. Do you remember when that figure was given to you?
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
There were a total of 7 full-sized Chevrolets brought into Canada with L72 power, be it Biscayne, Impala SS427, coupe, sedan, convertible, wagon, whatever.
Where did you get this information from Cam?
I had received it from a guy in Windsor who has a documented 1969 Impala SS427 Sport Coupe that was sold new in Canada. I have been digging for the last day or so but haven't found the documentation. It may have gone with a departed drive. There was VVS documentation on that car that gave the L72 stats as being X number of cars.
I said their were 7 L72 big cars, it may have actually only been 6 cars for 1969. I really would love to find that e-mail from year's ago that spelled it out. I'll keep looking because we all like facts as opposed to vague recollections.
Well all that to say that my original thought that this could be the only convertible SS427 4 speed L72 imported to Canada remains very plausible.
Yes Ray, I do not doubt your figures. All the figures VVS gives seemed to be qualified. Sometimes figures like specific L36 production on Biscayne 2-doors often gets qualified into combined Biscayne & Strato Chief production, for instance.
The information VVS seems to be working from is old deteriorating microfiche from scanned printouts. It is not searchable like a digitized database and as a result is a laborious undertaking (I'd do it in a heartbeat). GM kept stats on each option & each model number, but as for specific numbers of say, Laurentian 4-door sedans in Crystal Turquoise it was not specifically tallied. One would have to literally go through hundreds of thousands of faded reports. You'd end up looking like Marty Feldman:
It would seem VVS is using statistics to extrapolate data and are approximations, give or take.
Digitizing would have been a huge undertaking, but Optical Character Recognition has come a long way. It would be worth it, given what they charge now for certified documentation. I guess the dollar figure was contrived to deter the triflers (to them) from making endless time-consuming requests vs. what it is worth to the owner of an actual restored car. Plus fixed costs (labour).
Triflers, ha, we are Historians.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
OK you guys know more about this than me - tell me about GM Zone cars, who orders them, executives? sales?
They must have have limits on what an individual could spend on a vehicle depending upon the job?
Anybody done any research on this?
I bought some GM Zone cars in the 80s, the obvious ones had a white sticker in the windshield. Last one was a 1989 Bonneville SSE, loaded, but they were all loaded? I think these cars at this time were sold by GM at internal dealer only auctions?
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
OK you guys know more about this than me - tell me about GM Zone cars, who orders them, executives? sales? They must have have limits on what an individual could spend on a vehicle depending upon the job? Anybody done any research on this?
I had a friend who worked sales at many dialers then finally ended up with GMAC as a Dealer Principle Liaison, not sure of title but a senior job. He knew the business like the back of his hand, just died about 18 months ago. Anyway he would get the most absolutely loaded cars to drive and he only ever had them for 4 to 6 months. The cars were treated like demos and when they arrived they were delivered through the regular dealer system except he specified the dealer. Once he got a car it was like open season on it from the sales staff at the dealer and they were very desirable cars because a car guy was ordering it. He ordered his own cars and even had COPO like rights to order non recommended colours and equipment and options. The orders had to be one up reviewed and he couldn't order any Cadillac and certain models, one in particular was the Grand National. He really pushed the envelope one time and ordered a Regal T Type two tone black and gold fully fully loaded, basically a Luxury Grand National. He only held onto that one for less than 8 weeks before it got sold. The best or worst case was a Delta 88 he ordered in non recommended colours dark blue with red leather interior. It was sold before he took possession as a customer saw it coming off the transporter and made the inquiry. That's all I recall about the cars.
I dealt with a few district service managers while working at GM dealers and they always had nice company vehicles. I don't recall if they had the ability to order what they drove though.
Speaking of special ordering a car the way you like, here's a link to a story about the last Charger built in Brampton. An automotive journalist had the opportunity to order the final Charger for the media fleet in Canada and decided to go for a non-recommended colour combo:
OK you guys know more about this than me - tell me about GM Zone cars, who orders them, executives? sales? They must have have limits on what an individual could spend on a vehicle depending upon the job? Anybody done any research on this?
I had a friend who worked sales at many dialers then finally ended up with GMAC as a Dealer Principle Liaison, not sure of title but a senior job. He knew the business like the back of his hand, just died about 18 months ago. Anyway he would get the most absolutely loaded cars to drive and he only ever had them for 4 to 6 months. The cars were treated like demos and when they arrived they were delivered through the regular dealer system except he specified the dealer. Once he got a car it was like open season on it from the sales staff at the dealer and they were very desirable cars because a car guy was ordering it. He ordered his own cars and even had COPO like rights to order non recommended colours and equipment and options. The orders had to be one up reviewed and he couldn't order any Cadillac and certain models, one in particular was the Grand National. He really pushed the envelope one time and ordered a Regal T Type two tone black and gold fully fully loaded, basically a Luxury Grand National. He only held onto that one for less than 8 weeks before it got sold. The best or worst case was a Delta 88 he ordered in non recommended colours dark blue with red leather interior. It was sold before he took possession as a customer saw it coming off the transporter and made the inquiry. That's all I recall about the cars.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I think I just purchased such a vehicle with my '68 Olds Delta 88 2 door hardtop. Will keep you posted,
