Oddest optioned car you have ever see...

[Jeff T.]

Reading the tread on the liquid tire chain made me think of an odd Buick that one of my uncles on my mother's side of the family owned.

He had a Buick four door, perhaps of mid 1980's vintage with a manual four speed and sport suspension. My uncle was a boat owner who said that you could not propperly pull a trailer with an automatic so since he was a GM employee he got his LeSabre or whatever it was built to his preferences and walked down the line as it was being assembled.

That Buick may be somewhere in Tennessee, My aunt and uncle retired somewhere down there after he retired from GM and the mechanic that kept the car up aquired it after my uncle passed on.

So what is the oddest (in your opinion) optioned car you have ever seen.

Jeff T.

[Nelsen Motorsports]

I did see a 1950 Chevrolet once that had factory A/C and every other option available except the windshield visor, I was there when it was pulled out of a barn it had been sitting in since the late 70s.

My dad's 70 1/2 Trans Am is also a one-off car for its interior combination of sandlewood seats and dash and saddle carpet on a blue car.

[Gunslinger]

I own one of the oddest optioned cars I've seen. I have a '69 Corvette convertible with the high option 427 engine...435hp, 3 2-barrel carbs, 4 -speed transmissions. That's fine as far as it goes but the additional mix of convenience and performance options baffles me...and I have the original window sticker and sales invoice to show that's how it came from the factory. It has power windows, 4.11 rear axle ratio, HD close-ratio transmission, non manual power steering, power brakes, auxiliary hardtop and the soft top, base AM/FM radio, base vinyl upholstery, tinted windows, tilt-telescope steering wheel and the deluxe wheel covers which are very heavy. While none are odd in and of themselves, that there's such a mix of luxury, convenience items with a car mechanically set up for pure, hairy performance just seems odd to me.

[junior]

The guy next door to me has a 67 Camaro with a 230 six with a 3spd manual trans...what makes it odd is that it is a RS package car with console, hide a way head lights etc. It also has a vinyl roof, although that may not have been from the factory. Probably the oddest optioned cars on a large scale that I can remember were the 25000 Iraq Malibu/Taxis of the early 80's that GM had to dump about 10,000 at a greatly reduced price to the Canadian public....cars built for the hot mid-east desert dumped on folks living in the cold northern climate of North America...go figure. Then there was the 65 or 66 Impala or Caprice that a friend of my Dad purchased new with 396/4spd combo with no power brakes or power steering...but that was a long time ago and forgotten many details, just remember that my Dad was so amazed at the lack of power steering or brakes, but Lloyd bought the car to drag race with...should have gone with a L79 Nova instead. Regards, Junior.

[(S)]

My 63 Hawk was ordered by the customer with the R2 and 4 speed, kind of rare.

They ALSO ordered 5 run flat tires, a hill holder and a pretty long list for a car that was not going to be at a car show or dealer promo.

[1962larksedan]

While still in the Wash DC area (ca. 1976); I had a 1967 Dodge Dart 270 model with a 273-2V, AT, PS, AC, vinyl roof (car was silver with a black top), red cloth interior, inside mirror control, manual disc brakes with the mandatory 14" wheels and HD suspension (front sway bar)..........on a 4 door sedan. About the only features missing were a posi rear end, 4 barrel carb and FM radio.

[8E45E]

Possibly the oddest car I've seen was one with zero options, in this case, a 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood. Here was Cadillac's most expensive car, and it didn't have a radio, or leather interior. (A radio of any kind was still an option in a Cadillac back then, before Datsun and Toyota came along and made a radio and floor mats standard in a low-priced car.) I would say 99% of Cadillacs would have left the factory with a radio, but don't know the percentage of Fleetwoods which had the leather interior option.

Craig

[55champion]

I bought a new 1967 Buick LeSabre 2 Door Fast Back with a 3 speed on the column no air and roll up windows. The car was Black on Black and I owned it till 1971. I traded it for a '69 Skylark Convert. in Jacksonville,NC. Sure would like to know where it is now....

[DEEPNHOCK]

A lot of station wagons were ordered with small V8's and 4 speeds to take advantage of the (then) rules in stock eliminator classes in drag racing.
Same goes for a 6cyl RS Camaro...
Some people would order the cheapest base engine in a sport package knowing they were going to change the engine out as soon as it got home...

[rockinhawk]

I once owner a 77 Plymouth Volare wagon with a slant 6 and a 4spd It had a2bbl carb, PS,PB,and air just like a regular family style wagon but with 4 on the floor.

[Greenstude]

My father owned a 1952 Dodge Mayfair 2-door hardtop (a Canada-only model equivalent to a Plymouth Belvedere) which had been our local dealer's personal car. It had every option available except one ---- spotlight, 3 exterior rear view mirrors, grille guard, exterior door handle plates, dashboard tray, floor mats, seat covers, 8-tube radio, wide whitewall tires, chrome wheel trim discs, chrome license plate frames, etc. The option omitted was direction signals.

One of my friends owns a 1959 Edsel 9-passenger station wagon weighing well over 4,000 lb., and many options. It has a 6-cylinder engine and standard transmission.

[Bill Pressler]

Possibly the oddest car I've seen was one with zero options, in this case, a 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood. Here was Cadillac's most expensive car, and it didn't have a radio, or leather interior. (A radio of any kind was still an option in a Cadillac back then, before Datsun and Toyota came along and made a radio and floor mats standard in a low-priced car.) I would say 99% of Cadillacs would have left the factory with a radio, but don't know the percentage of Fleetwoods which had the leather interior option.

Craig

Craig, I don't know that I've ever seen a '65 Fleetwood with leather interior--'66's, yes. If you look online for ads or brochure photos of '65 Fleetwoods, you'll almost always see a luxury cloth interior. Now now radio, THAT is rare!

I've mentioned this before, but I absolutely, positively remember a new, black 1972 Cadillac Calais Hardtop Sedan with blackwalls, no air, and no radio. It did have power windows as they were standard equipment. The bottom of the window sticker was $6,480, which would have been the base price plus whatever destination charges were. I remember there were NO options on the window sticker. The car was out of the dealer in a couple days and I never once saw it around town again.

My new '81 Monte Carlo was two-tone light and dark jade, was a 267 V8 when most Montes of that era were V6's, had Positraction and FM radio but no A/C. A coworker bought a new '79 Mercury Zephyr Z-7, nice firethorn-type color, 302, and 4-speed. It took so long to come in he was calling people at Ford.

[studegary]

I did see a 1950 Chevrolet once that had factory A/C and every other option available except the windshield visor, I was there when it was pulled out of a barn it had been sitting in since the late 70s.

My dad's 70 1/2 Trans Am is also a one-off car for its interior combination of sandlewood seats and dash and saddle carpet on a blue car.

I don't remember Chevrolet offering "factory A/C" anywhere near that early (1950). Chevrolet did come out with automatic transmission in 1950. I don't remember factory A/C in a Chevrolet until 1956.
That Trans Am doesn't seem like an unusual combination. What do you base your "one-off" statement on?

[studegary]

While still in the Wash DC area (ca. 1976); I had a 1967 Dodge Dart 270 model with a 273-2V, AT, PS, AC, vinyl roof (car was silver with a black top), red cloth interior, inside mirror control, manual disc brakes with the mandatory 14" wheels and HD suspension (front sway bar)..........on a 4 door sedan. About the only features missing were a posi rear end, 4 barrel carb and FM radio.

I had a Valiant that was very close to that Dart. It was a 1969 Valiant Signet four door sedan with; 273 V8, AT, ps, pb, vinyl roof, cloth seats, SureGrip, 14 inch wheels and more. I bought the car from the family of the original owner. I owned it for years. I won a national prize at the NCPC International Meet with this car.

[studegary]

I thought that my 1957 Golden Hawk was odd in that it had power windows and power seat, but no power steering or power brakes.

I have owned car models that were low production, like one of two, so I guess that everything on them was unusual.