Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

[Larry S.]

This thread is not meant to brag about my car. I have a 67, 427/400, AT, AC, PS, PB, speedminder that is Sunfire Yellow, black interior, both tops. It's supposedly 1 of 16 made in that configuration.

In the last 5 years, I have seen 4 cars like it advertised for sale; one was blue, but the other 3 (including mine) were Sunfire Yellow with black. 1 was in Florida, 1 in Michigan, and 1 (mine) was in Australia. Does it seem odd that so many (relatively speaking) are Yellow?

Does anyone keep a list of these cars? I realize they're not L-88's, but still rare. And, yes, I know that folks dispute the number of cars produced in the configuration of mine, but whether it's 16, 20, 21, or 'about 40', it's still rare.

[Jean C.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

Larry, how was it determined that there were 16 cars with a config like yours produced in the '67 model year?

Best regards,

[Michael J.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

Certainly that would be a fairly rare car, providing all the accessories are verified through documentation like a tank sticker. Since there is no "Marti" report equivalent available for Corvettes, there is just no way of really knowing how many had these accessories and color combos. Extrapolation is just not accurate enough past the body, color, and engine combos.

[James G.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

Noland Adams 'RESTORATION GUIDE, VOL #2' has all of the air conditioned cars produced for each year 1963-67. He obtained the information from Chevrolet archives back in the 1982-86 period when he was let into the archives. His recods show 11997 cars out of 117964 produced over the 5 years had air conditioning. So, about 10.14% total. It is a rare option at the time as most Corvette buyers were performance minded, and sure did not want an accessory that robbed power.

In 67, total air cars made were 3788 an impressive 16.8% of production, the largest of any previous year.
The total 67 production by engine combination were as follows:
COUPE:
300hp manual trans 343
300hp auto trans 486
350hp manual trans 444
390hp auto trans 229
490hp manual trans 408
400hp manual trans 325
400hp auto trans ????

CONVERTIBLE :
300hp manual trans 345
300hp auto trans 247
350hp manual trans 336
390hp manual trans 298
390hp auto trans 138
400hp manual trans 199
400hp auto trans * 16 ??

I find it interesting that the records are very complete for all the AC cars made over the 5 years, but the 1967 400hp auto transmission cars, both coupe and convertible.

The most interesting combination I find is 1964 and 65 convertibles with solid lifter 365hp engines that were very high reving engines and surely would throw AC fan belts and burn up compressors. But they did sell them. 133 in 64 and 138 in 65 convertibles to be exact.

In 66, only 20 converibles with the 390 engine and powerglide were made.

Chevrolet realized the had an overheating issue with auto tansmissioned 390 and 400 cars in 66 and 67, and had a special offset license plate frame for all cars with air and 427 engines. That may expain the low production numbers, but even so they made 387 cars in 66 and 67 with the 390 and AC automatic.

Personally, I think more than 16 auto trans 400hp cars with Air were made, and maybe someday the complete records will be released.

What ever the answer is, you have a very rare car. Now just for fun, add the K-19 California Smog pump to the equation. I believe that is where the 16 cars came from. Air conditioning C60 and California Smog Control K-19.

I owned a 67 convert 390 powerglide, with AC, and K-19 California Smog control. Only 38 of those were made, even thought 138 total 67 convertibles were built with 427/390 AC and Auto trans.

[Larry S.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

Michael, yes, I do have the tank sticker and all documentation going back to 1969. All I'm missing is the original owner, who must be deceased.

James, thank you so much for going to the trouble of posting the very informative information. I am saving it.

[Wayne M.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

...... I do have the tank sticker and all documentation going back to 1969. All I'm missing is the original owner, who must be deceased. ...

Larry --here's the approach I'd take to get an "approximate" statistical rarity. Start with Noland's Vol2; check the ECL's of the single RPO that cover the most of the options that you describe, OR, the one with fewer options but a lower total; you want to start with the rarest KNOWN GM figure before you extrapolate for the rest of the options/body styles/colors.

For your car, I see that J50 power brakes (Noland, page 409) shows 50 cars that had J50 with L68 and M35. Actually, I think that this figure should have also included C60 (a typo on the page, or error in the GM source document) [-- ie. compare to the same with 4-speed number of 102].

So we now factor in body style, color, etc. Convertibles were 63% of production except when C60 was ordered, in which case it was more a 50/50 split. So now we have 25 convertibles with L68, M35 and C60.

Next, the color: overall, yellow was 10%, but here again I suspect a positive bias for convertibles and air cars (I'm sure you have a framed copy of that famous 1967 magazine ad showing the BB convertible driving down the surf line with the horses galloping alongside -- if not, shame on you ). Example: my two '65s are yellow, both delivered new to hot southern states -- the coupe has air; the other is L78 (sorry, no air possible). So let's say 20% including this bias, gives us 5 yellow convertibles with J50, L68, M35 and C60.

The rest of the options: cars equipped as the paragraph above tended to also have PS (say 80%). So now we have 4 cars so-equipped.

Finally the U15 speedminder; only 9% of total '67 production had this. Let's be generous and say that 20% of loaded cars similar to yours would have ticked this box on the dealer order. Final extrapolated figure is 0.8 of a car (ie. under one car produced with the options you show).

Others will laugh (ie. state that this proves your car was never built) but what this says is that there is a next-to-none chance that you will ever see another exact duplicate, even if you had access to the complete '67 production records.

Let the flames begin .

[David S.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

I know of three 400hp, AC, AT besides yours. Two are blue one is silver.


-Dave

[Larry S.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

Very, very interesting, Wayne! Thanks for going to the trouble of figuring out all these calculations. Of the other two yellow cars I mentioned in my original post, I do know that the one in Michigan had a repro window sticker although the tags did match. I know nothing about the one in Florida except what was shown on eBay. Just think: I may have a car that doesn't exist except in a parallel universe!

[Kenneth B.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

I know of three 400hp, AC, AT besides yours. Two are blue one is silver.


-Dave

I owned a 1967 red/white interior 400,AC,auto. conv. It was the one on the cover of Dobbins book
KEN

[Tom S.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

If the one in Florida is located in Davie and is blue with teal blue interior and a black top it is a scam. It was on the flee. Save your time this one is a joke!

[Harry L.]

Re: Your comments on a 'rare 67'? And another question

Just curious as to what are your original Frame stencil numbers? DUTCH