The reasons why their aren't more ultra-premium musclecars left.....

Someone told me the other day that he didn't understand why more of the prized musclecars-i.e.-Boss 302s, Hemi 'Cudas, LS6 Chevelles,428 CJ Mustangs, RAIV GTOs, etc weren't sold when they were new. Having worked in car dealerships all my life-I think I can give a viable answer, although there's no one single factor-but a variety of factors that contribute to these car's rarity. # 1. Availability of the option. This has always been a problem. A manufacturer introduces something really cool,and the buff magazines get wind of it and write about it, and people start pestering dealers wanting to buy the cars. But often the dealers can't even get the cars. Beleive me-they'd want to sell as many of them as they could, but often they can't get them. Here's several examples. Back in the '60's and '70's you had to sell 500 units to the public if you wanted to race the car in NASCAR or Trans-Am, or even NHRA Stock or Super Stock Drag classes. This is why only 602 Z/28 Camaros were built in 1967 and why only 1,603 Boss 302 Mustangs were built in 1969. Ford and Chevy didn't care about selling them to the public-they wanted to homogolate them for racing. Same thing with Thunderbolt Fairlanes and Hemi Darts. Secondly, the manufacturer's often changed or limited the availability of the option. For example-Initially, the LS6 454 was slated to be available in the Camaro SS and the Nova SS as well as the Chevelle line. The flat intake manifold that loses 15 hp compared to the 1969 427 4bbl intake was designed to clear the low hood of the new for 1970 Camaro. Since the 396 was an option in both cars the 454 would have been a no-brainer drop-in.  The brass decided to cut down on model proliferation at the last minute, and the engine was only offered in the Chevelle line late in the model year. Thus although nearly 50,000 SS 396 Chevelles were sold that year-only 4,478 LS6 SS 454s were sold. And think about this-At that time Chevrolet had a network of 7,700 dealers across the United States. Do the math-with only 4478 cars built-not every dealer got one-regardless of how high demand was. This is also why there is no LS6 1970 Corvettes. Zora-Arkus Duntov, chief Corvette engineer- fully expected the much more radical LS7 to make production as the 'Vette's top engine option which is why the LS6 wasn't offered. In early 1973 sales literature the SD-455 was listed as optional in the Grand Am, Gran Prix, LeMans,GTO and Firebird Formula and Trans-Am models. The buff magazines were excited. CARS magazine made a collossal goof-they voted the 1973 GTO their "Car of the Year." Both Hot Rod and Car and Driver raved about their Red T/A test car-( it was the same car ) that ran blistering 1/4 mile times of 13.54 and 13.75 respectively.  However-the engines had trouble passing emissions with the radical 308 / 320 duration RAIV cam. The cam was swapped for the milder 301 / 313 duration RAIII cam and hp was down-rated from 310 to 290. Then they had reliability and availability problems with the connecting rod supplier. In fact- if you went to a dealer and wanted to buy a set of SD-455 rods-you had to produce a matching vin number or they wouldn't sell them to you! They also had more trouble passing emissions because of faulty EGR valves. Only the tireless efforts of Herb Adams and the buff magazines kept GM from scrapping it altogether. Finally-in April 1973 the engine was EPA certified in the Firebird line only. This is why only 295 were built-252 in Trans-Ams and another 43 in Formulas. And that's why they all have May or June production dates. Another 943 were sold in 1974 Trans-Ams. This wasn't just a '60s and '70's problem. In the early '80's I was selling cars in a Chevrolet / Pontiac dealership. In 1983 the buff magazines raved about the L69 Performance Package for Z/28 Camaros and Firebird Trans-Ams. These hotted up 305s had a higher compression ratio, a hotter cam, a better exhaust and a better intake, and an electric radiator fan to lower parasitic losses. This bumped hp from 150 on the standard LG4 to 190 for the L69. Car and Driver's May 1983 test car ran a blistering ( for the time ) 6.7 second 0-60 time and the 1/4 in 15.0. However-the fan switch wouldn't kick the fan on until coolant tempurature reached 225 degrees. This caused overheating and vapor lock problems. Very few were sold. The option returned for '84-and GM solved the problem by going to a 180 degree thermostat instead of 195, and having the fan kick on at 180 instead of 225. Only gearheads knew about the option so they didn't sell a ton of them. It was offered agian in '85-but then the new Tuned Port Injected LB9 with 215 hp was the big dog-and the L69 quietly faded away, even though it was a good package. In 1984 the new Corvette was offered with the 4-speed 700R4 automatic and a Super T10 4-speed manual with an overdrive that could be turned on in 2nd,3rd or 4th, effectively giving you 7 gears. However they had problems with the operation of the overdrives, and 99% of '84 'Vettes were automatics-even though enthusiasts very much wanted the manuals. They got the bugs out-and it actually worked very well and was available from 1985-88. In 1989 they went to a 6-speed manual. But try to find a manual '84 model-there's not many of them.  # 2 Price of the Option. This is just as big a factor as # 1-maybe even bigger. Think about this-in 1968 the base price of a 383 Road Runner was about $2,800. That was a screaming deal for a stripped-down performance car that could run just as fast as the much more expensive Pontiac GTO, Olds 442 and Chevy SS 396 Chevelle. They sold 45,000 in '68 and in '69 they sold 81,000-almost 10,000 more units than Pontiac could sell of the vaunted GTO. Yes the mighty 426 Hemi was an option-a $1,163 option!!  And you couldn't buy a Hemi with the standard 3-speed manual you HAD to get a 4-speed or a Torqueflite automatic. You HAD to get a heavy-duty radiator, heavy duty suspension and a Dana 60 rear. ( Why I don't know-I've never seen anyone ever break an 8 3/4 ). By the time you got all the "mandatory" options-the price had risen from $2,800 to $5,000+. Further-for some reason Chrysler only gave the Hemi a 1 year / 12,000 mile warranty. The 383 and 440 engines got a 5 year / 50,000 mile warranty. One of the editors for Musclecar Review still has the 440 Road Runner that he bought new in 1969. He said he didn't get a Hemi for those reasons. The 440 was like a $200 option, the Hemi, with the other "mandatory" options was in reality almost a $2,000 option-again pushing the price from just over 3 grand to over 5 grand. And for a young guy with a wife and kids making payments on a new car-that 5 year / 50,000 mile warranty was really important. Plus-the Hemis were a race engine that Chrysler was only selling to the public so they could race them in NASCAR. The peaky, dual-quad, huge headed, solid-lifter Hemi really needed a 4-speed and 4.10 or stiffer gears to get maximum performance. Popular Hot Rodding said the Torqueflite equipped, 3.23:1 geared '69 Hemi Charger they tested felt like it was running with one flat tire. They said it desperately need 4.30 gears and a high stall converter. They were right-on the high banks of Daytona or the Drag Strip with open exhausts and proper gearing the Hemi was King Kong-Richard Petty and Ronnie Sox were unstoppable in NASCAR and Pro Stock drag racing. But the milder 383 and 440 4bbl engines were actually quicker on the street. Ditto for the Boss 302 and Boss 429 Mustangs. The 302 had a lot of special one-off parts and had very little torque below 3,000 rpm. There's a reason they were only available with a 4-speed and 3.90:1 or 4.30:1 gears!!  And to cut down on warranty problems on these expensive pieces-Ford put a rev-limiter on it that cut off spark at 5,700 rpm!! Kind of pointless on a car that makes all it's power from 5,000-8,000 rpm!!  The 351W that was standard in the Mach 1 was a much better street engine, and could be had with an automatic and air conditioning if you wanted it. The 429s started out as 428 models, and were shipped to Kar Kraft for the Boss-Nine conversion. They too, had a lot of one-off special parts, and Ford lost money on every single Boss built. The Boss 429 was designed for one thing and one thing only-to beat the vaunted Chrysler 426 Hemi on the Super Speedways of Daytona, Charlotte and Talledega. It didn't run well with restricted exhaust and street gearing. The 390 and 428 engines actually ran faster on the street and in magazine 1/4 mile testing. But the nose-heavy "FE" engined 390 /428 cars were terrible handlers. The 351W / 351C engined Mach 1s of the '69-70 period were actually the best balanced and best performing Mustangs of the time. This affected every automaker. The vaunted Ram Air IV Pontiac engine had forged pistons, special round-port cylinder heads, a special aluminum high-rise intake, special round-port exhaust manifolds, and the hot 308 / 320 duration cam with 1.65:1 rockers and .520 lift. It was only available with a 4-speed or an automatic with a special 2,500 rpm converter and 3.90:1 or 4.33:1 gears. It could easily compete with the mighty LS6 454 Chevy,440 Six-Pack Mopars and 428 Fords. However Pontiac out foxed themselves by being cute and grossly-under-rating the engine to slip by insurance companies. The Standard GTO engine ( which was basically the mild "Big Car" 400 that came in a Catalina, Gran Prix, etc ) was rated at 350 hp. The RAIII which had a hotter cam was rated at 366 hp. The RAIV was rated at 370 hp. Huh? You want me to believe that very special pistons, very special bigger heads,bigger exhaust,a bigger cam with a special valvetrain and a bigger intake is only worth 20 hp over a station wagon engine, and only worth 4 hp over the station wagon engine with a cam?? And you want me to pay $600 more on the window sticker for it??  In a Firebird the base engine was rated at 335 and the RAIV was only rated at 345!!!  No wonder they didn't sell. From 1984-86 Ford sold SVO Mustangs that had Recaro seats, 16" tires and wheels, 4-wheel disc brakes, and a Turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with between 175 and 205 hp depending on year. The buff magazines raved. However-the "5.0" V8 models were both faster and several thousand dollars cheaper, so the SVO's sold poorly. # 3. Poor, or no promotion by the factory. This always perplexed me. You engineer a cool-ass car that would sell like hot cakes-and you don't promote it. I'm a lifelong gearhead and I didn't know Buick Grand Nationals existed until I read a road test of one in Car Craft. GM and Buick never promoted the car. Same thing with the Supercharged Ford Lightning Pickups in the late '90's. I worked in a Pontiac Dealer and I didn't know that the 20th Anniversary T/A was going to have the vaunted GN Turbo engine instead of the usual Chevy V8's until I saw one on the lot!!  No Brochures, no magazine articles nothing!!  And the 2003-04 Mercury Marauder. Ford never promoted them.  Any how-hope that clears things up-there's many reasons why their aren't more 340 Six-Pack 'Cuda AARs, or Boss 351 Mustangs or W30 442s or whatever.  Mastermind