[Gary H]

I've got a 73' Brewster Green SD car with the beige cloth interior. Does anybody know how many SD cars came with cloth interior option? I've seen a few over the years at national shows, but not many. Out of the 252 made I have to believe it's pretty rare.

[johnta1]

10 in the SD Registry, all in Brewster Green except one in Buccaneer Red exterior.

[Gary H]

Originally Posted by johnta1

10 in the SD Registry, all in Brewster Green except one in Buccaneer Red exterior.

Interesting numbers John. I wonder if anyone has documented the actual numbers though

[John V.]

The SD Registry is a pretty impressive database.

Without sorting by TA vs. Formula, it looks like the Registry has records for 162 of 295 '73 SDs, 55%.

Gary, the 10 with the Cloth and Morrokide interior includes yours. They are all TAs but I don't think you would assume that no SD Formulas got that trim.

If you extrapolate the nos., you could estimate 18 or 19 with the Cloth and Morrokide trim (which was only available in Beige for '73).

I don't think you'd be far off using that estimate.

Back when PMD had the records, Fred Simmonds did a lot of research going thru them to log totals for the early SD cars as well as the RAIVs I believe. He may have also been the guy who identified the exterior color for the 17 '71 Judge convertibles.

I've never seen any similar logs for the '73 or '74 SDs. I could be wrong but I don't think any similar tabulations have been produced since PHS acquired the records.

It seems to me the SD Registry is as comprehensive a resource as you could hope to find.

FWIW, Oxblood Morrokide was the 2nd lowest trim on the Registry, 12 examples which extrapolates to 21 or 22 in total.

You could play with the nos. and look only at TAs. Oxblood would be the rarest as only 8 TAs have been recorded in that trim (all were White exterior except for one in Buccaneer Red). That suggests only 14 or 15 '73 SD TAs came with the Oxblood trim.

You can be certain that the Beige Cloth and Morrokide or the Oxblood Morrokide ran about neck and neck as the rarest trim choices among the '73 SD TA builds.

[77 Canamman]

That "beige" was officially called the neutral interior. My Admiralty Blue '73 455 Formula had the cloth/vinyl interior in neutral. The dash and carpet was a greenish brown color. I also had a '73 Grand Am with the same colors inside and out.

[John V.]

77, I'm wondering what you mean by official.

The '73 Firebird Order Form, the Firebird Sales Brochure, and the Firebird section of the full line Interior and Color Brochure all identify it as Beige.

The '73 Camaro offered a Neutral color choice but it was vinyl.

Just for yucks, I extrapolated the nos. at the SD Registry for each of the 8 Interior Trim choices and came up with the following for TAs only:

Saddle Standard Trim - 13
White Standard Trim - 6
Black Standard Trim - 37
Saddle Custom Trim - 31
White Custom Trim - 37
Black Custom Trim - 96
Burgundy Custom Trim - 16
Beige Cloth Custom Trim - 16

Some of the entries at the Registry have incomplete data or nonsensical data (for example, a couple identified as Saddle Cloth). The better the data, the more accurate the estimates.

But a couple things seem obvious. Black Custom Trim is clearly the most common. Combined with Black Standard, black accounts for about 1/2 of all '73 SD TAs.

White Standard was not very popular but White Standard and Custom combined was about the same popularity as Saddle Standard and Custom combined, each accounted for about 17% of the total.

As I previously noted, Burgundy and Beige ran neck and neck for the rarest interior trims, each accounted for about 6% of the total.

However, Saddle Standard and White Standard appear to be even rarer with White Standard being the least common of the 8 choices.

[Gary H]

Originally Posted by John V.

77, I'm wondering what you mean by official.

The '73 Firebird Order Form, the Firebird Sales Brochure, and the Firebird section of the full line Interior and Color Brochure all identify it as Beige.

The '73 Camaro offered a Neutral color choice but it was vinyl.

Just for yucks, I extrapolated the nos. at the SD Registry for each of the 8 Interior Trim choices and came up with the following for TAs only:

Saddle Standard Trim - 13
White Standard Trim - 6
Black Standard Trim - 37
Saddle Custom Trim - 31
White Custom Trim - 37
Black Custom Trim - 96
Burgundy Custom Trim - 16
Beige Cloth Custom Trim - 16

Some of the entries at the Registry have incomplete data or nonsensical data (for example, a couple identified as Saddle Cloth). The better the data, the more accurate the estimates.

But a couple things seem obvious. Black Custom Trim is clearly the most common. Combined with Black Standard, black accounts for about 1/2 of all '73 SD TAs.

White Standard was not very popular but White Standard and Custom combined was about the same popularity as Saddle Standard and Custom combined, each accounted for about 17% of the total.

As I previously noted, Burgundy and Beige ran neck and neck for the rarest interior trims, each accounted for about 6% of the total.

However, Saddle Standard and White Standard appear to be even rarer with White Standard being the least common of the 8 choices.

Interesting number John! Thanks for doing that. And I agree that the option is Beige cloth interior, that's what is on my build sheet.

[77 Canamman]

Must be a Chevrolet name for it.. SSDD

However, PPG and the other paint manufacturers called it "neutral" on the Pontiac charts.

[74SDformula]

I picked up a Buccaneer Red car with the beige cloth interior a few years ago. It is not listed in the registry to my knowledge.

[johnta1]

If it was not from Western Motor Co. dealer, you could add it to the Registry?