[Baron Von Zeppelin]

This is all pretty wild chain of events.

Thews posted the link to the eBay TA in his normal eBay cars for sale in 67-69 Bird section.
I checked it out - and saw the trim tag and invoice.

Came on here and made this thread to go along with the "Highest VIN / Build Date" thread in this section.
Saw that Paul had an even lower VIN posted there , in jest .
... and here we are .

Sumvabich

01ATTF

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

If someone buys the eBay 01A TA ,
I can let you borrow my notebook to display with the car at the Nationals.

[johnta1]

Do you think that the TA production was started later than the base Firebirds?

I have a N100013 and N100099 base Bird cowltag pics that are 12C.

[unruhjonny]

Has anyone come across (or heard of) this car?

- I just came across it now - check out the build date on the cowl tag!!

1970 Camaro #001

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by johnta1

Do you think that the TA production was started later than the base Firebirds?

I have a N100013 and N100099 base Bird cowltag pics that are 12C.

Yes I "think" the TA started production later than the Birds.
Because that had always seemed to be the consensus.

That Chicago Auto Show on Feb 23 was the official introduction/release date for the whole Pontiac F-Body line up .
TA production is said to have started in March.

Do you have Invoices for either of those 12C cars ?
They were likely pilot cars also.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

Has anyone come across (or heard of) this car?

- I just came across it now - check out the build date on the cowl tag!!

1970 Camaro #001

I remember when it went through that Mecum auction and didn't bring the interest that was hoped for.
Seems like there had been at least one major magazine article about it either shortly before it left Yuniks garage - or shortly after it left his garage.

Think it met with a lot of controversial objectives beyond the 001 factor.

[johnta1]

Do you have Invoices for either of those 12C cars ?

No, unfortunately.
I have a pic of the VIN for the 011 car. It is a plain Bird. It is 26 color though.

The 099, I just figured it is a plain Bird.

[Rocky Rotella]

I’m not certain that a vehicle from any model year with a VIN 350+ after onset would/could be considered a pilot vehicle. Generally speaking, pilot vehicles were assembled before typical production of preceding model years ended. The exception, obviously, would be specialty models introduced midyear such as the 1969 Judge or Trans Am.

We must remember that the 1970 F-car was delayed and Pontiac chose the opening of the Chicago Auto Show for Firebird’s official release. Firebird’s official “Announcement Day” (public release) was February 26, 1970, which loosely coincided with the opening of the Chicago Auto Show a few days earlier. Interested consumers could venture to select local Pontiac dealers and see a new 1970 Firebird on that same day as attendees of the Chicago Auto Show. The Firebird models placed at local dealers for Announcement Day was not always—and apparently rarely—a Trans Am.

To ensure new 1970 Firebirds placement throughout the country for the February 26th Announcement Day, regular production began in very early January 1970. According to internal memos in my collection, Pontiac produced more than 2,500 1970 Firebirds in January and more than 5,000 in February (through 2/20/70). The Trans Am accounted for roughly 300 of them.

Pontiac shipped these Firebirds to dealers on a consignment basis under a bulletin agreement dated December 23, 1969. The division stipulated that the cars were Pontiac property and couldn’t be sold without title, to which Pontiac held transfer of until (roughly) Announcement Day.

Included in the pre-introduction production ramp-up were media cars intended for press previews, which were mostly located on the east and west coast for magazine and newspapers writers. Most media days were held in mid-to-late January 1970. Detailed Firebird info was released to the press on February 10, 1970. I don’t know if these cars were sold to dealers/the public at a discount or returned to Pontiac and destroyed. However, we do know that (5) “pilot” cars were built. They include:

Polar White Trans Am (R/A IV 4-speed)
Lucerne Blue Formula 400 (R/A III 4-speed)
Cardinal Red Formula 400 (standard L78 auto)
Castilian Bronze Esprit
Keylime Green Firebird

It’s quite possible that these particular Firebirds were those campaigned at various new-car shows across the country.

And as it relates to the Trans Am sold new through Andy Klein Pontiac in Kansas City (subject of this post) as well as Paul K’s, which was sold new through Peoples Pontiac in Chicago, if an early Firebird is sold as a discount (like the subject car’s invoice shows), they were likely little more than standard production Firebird—albeit very early built—that could used as Zone displays/demonstrators to introduce the model to dealers and/or public and not likely “brass hat” cars. Without documentation, however, it’s anyone’s guess!

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Find a 70 TA with an earlier body build date - and let me know about that.

March/April body dates is about as early as we ever see in the past 20 years of internet sharing.
These 2 are 01A

They are pre-production = pilot , to me.
On these 2 TA's

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

I'd be curious just to see another Jan or Feb body date 70 TA

Paul's brother has a 600-800 range 70 TA
That one could be informative via body date and the invoice data.

hint hint Paul K

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

I'd be curious just to see another Jan or Feb body date 70 TA

Paul's brother has a 600-800 range 70 TA
That one could be informative via body date and the invoice data.

hint hint Paul K

I have a request in for that information. Unfortunately it will be a while. I talked to one gentleman that knew of a mid December build.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

All of it is interesting to me .
I'm not from Missouri , but I have to see the oddballers .

Just to note , we can't totally judge a 70 TA by its VIN
They only built 3196 , but the VINs don't run from 100001 to 103196.
Was just looking at an 03A TA and it's VIN is N107375
And 03A has always been considered ultra early for 70 TA
I'm just sticking with Norwood cars for this investigation - I know Van Nuys built some also.

The wildest thing besides the body dates on these two 01A cars ,
other than their body dates ,
Is they are sequential VIN - AND - same options / colors.

But that doesn't make them TA #354 and #355 out of 3196 - or out of however many TA's were built in Norwood. fwiw

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

I think the VIN sequence clicked up for every V8 Bird produced .
And it just hit where it landed on any given model or series.

Not sure if that is exactly right , it's more hear-say , they-say .
Seymore or Rocky might know though.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

@Johnta1
Could you help us again and post the 2 invoices for that 70 Ram4 TA display car that went to Coney Island or some place like that ? Still no access to my files yet , big handicap.
Trim tag too if you happen to have it also.

Give us something to compare against when Paul gets his PHS .
Hopefully his is Multi-Invoice and gets lucky with both copies.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

I think the VIN sequence clicked up for every V8 Bird produced .
And it just hit where it landed on any given model or series.

Not sure if that is exactly right , it's more hear-say , they-say .
Seymore or Rocky might know though.

Yes - this is correct.

K

[johnta1]

post the 2 invoices for that 70 Ram4 TA display car that went to Coney Island or some place like that

Not sure these are the ones? I didn't have a reference to Coney Island.


2 PHS' for a 70 (SD) RAIV TA though, from zone 991 and one for Scutti Pontiac.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Thanks John .
Yes that's the one.

Something about the backstory was it was displayed at Coney Island boardwalk ,
Or some boardwalk type venue up in NY/NJ area .... hell I can't keep all of them straight anymore without my files.

Now I remember that some of the cars that went out from satellite plants for events got billed out to that corresponding zone like a regular zone car (991 - 992 etc)

The exit billing to Scutti is 997 though.
Like the exit billing on 01A #355 is 997 .

If they hadn't been used (as say a normal zone inventory)
The exit billing would stay 991 , 992 etc variety .

Believe only the cars from Motherland PMD factory had the Marketing/Display/Show Car Pool type designators on their #1 Invoices. iirc now

[johnta1]

I did mistype the dealer/zone.

I also found this window sticker for this (probably PHS done)



Found out that I have misspelled the dealer name?
(if PHS didn't spell it wrong)

[Held for Ransom]

Another crappy window sticker. Scutti is correct.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/326131697374

[johnta1]

Thanks, Mike!


Glad I didn't have it misspelled all these years.