1973 SD455 TA - Finally Rescued This One
 

Been chasing this car for years. Finally was able to make a deal on it a couple of months ago. It's going to need lots of work.

Nice car. Congratulations

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That does look like a lot of work but nice car to work on!

CONGRATS that's the 2nd red with beige cloth SD to surface in the last month. tell us all the details

Lots of options on that car.

Do you know it’s history? Or who Richard Hanson is?

Based on the invoice discount, it seems that it may have been used as a company car of some sort. Based on the ship date, it was released for sale after the 1974 model year production began.

Very cool!


Know any history on it?
The Individual and the zone 50 is interesting. Possibly a high ranking Pontiac employee ordered it? (like Toth did on his)

EDIT: looks like Rocky treed me!

:)

Nicely optioned...

Either extended stay at the unfinished car lot, or a Pontiac internal car somehow, Zone car most likely to show off options.
Brass hat car no longer needed after the '74's were out. I am betting this car was NOT shipped. It was invoiced out at the last dealership it landed at, and they got to sell it.
Have seen this before. Our dealership got a "overloaded " '78 T/A with miles on it from the Zone manager just as the '79's showed up. He left in a brand new overloaded "red bird"
with the bill of lading so we wouldn't be billed. The Red Bird had a gold dash I remember as it was different for an Esprit. That car got a lot of attention after we set it up and it was out on the lawn for one day. The Dealer owner bought the used '78 and I never saw it again.

A few more photos.

Very nice

LOL! "Lots of work"??? In the northeast that would be considered "buff & wax". :D

Persistence definitely paid off for you. Nice piece.

Great you finally got it! I've been trying to get a car for about 16 years now.

As opposed to a brass-hat car for Zone use, I'd guess that "ENG 3547" suggests that it was assigned to Pontiac engineering and assigned ID 3547. It's not uncommon to have such cars loaded with options. I'd love to learn more about its history.

That is going to be a sweet car when done. Congrats!

Love that day 2 look w/ Wheels & Tires. !!

Very, very, very nice car!

If the rear rails are good, I'd be tempted to drive it like it is for a while!

I agree with Rocky on that scenario.

These SD cars didn't start leaving Norwood until mid-to-late June.
October would be in-line after its 3 month tenure in Michigan.

All the 50-001 cars so far have had PMD tie-ins in some capacity.
Enoch Eley for example, was high up in accounting dept.
There was also Toth and Goad

What happened a lot was these guys were smart enough to get deep double discounts on basically new cars after some light departmental use.
And had the pull or shoulder rub to get it done in harmony.
To pull off a limited production car like the 73 SD, Hanson was probably deep in the know and well heeled in the chain of command.

This invoice reflects discount for its use.
For a PMD employee it would have had even an additional discount on top of that.

Being from engineering doesn't exactly mean it was brutalized or anything. It could have just been a daily driver for a higher up in engineering. And they would just keep a log book on its drive-ability and behavior patterns etc.

Hanson most likely picked the colors and content and dictated that info to the department ahead of time.
There was a short window on these cars.
Engineering would have been the best department to go through to have full flexibility of eligibility when the window was opened.

That would be my best guess-timate overall right now.
Not a concrete take it to the bank deal without more potential info.

WoW Man, helluva cool 73SD !
Full Congrats on being the new owner.

Suggest contacting PHS again and tell them the Build Date from Cowl Tag , and ask if they can find any other Invoices on file for it.

Really glad to see how many main ingredients are still intact.
I've never seen a Red car with the Cloth, just a few Green ones with it.

I have been unable to get much information on the history of this car from the prior owner. However it appears this car came out of the Franklin, NC area in the early 80's. It may have been on a used car lot. Hopefully I will be able to fill in some gaps in the future.