Question about Z16 Chevelles
 

After looking at the Z16 Chevelle listed on Ebay I went back and looked at the one that sold in Jan from the Rick Treworgy collection. I always thought that the VIN #s would be sequential with only 201 cars being produced, but apparently that is not the case. The VIN from the Ebay car is 138375K175146 and the VIN from the Treworgy car is 138375K169577. That is a span of 5569 cars. If these two cars are both legit, is it possible that they made a certain amount of Z16's then went on to other cars, then went back to making Z16's again and finished up the run of 201 cars?

I am not a Z16 guy by any means, but other low production cars were not built in one batch ( Z06 Corvettes, L88's, Zl1 Camaro's). I suspect they could have been limited to office approvals or orders to say nothing for parts availability.

Just my .02?

Tim

Here is a thread that discusses production window.

https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=83983

It appears the Z16 registry is no longer available to view online...??

They wouldn't be consecutive for line balance reasons, along with many others like scheduling, parts availability, orders, etc.

I miss Dave (MRREC) :(



He was a wealth of knowledge and a great guy!

When is the convertible gonna be found??? I have been thinking about this for 30 plus years!

I thought of doing a tribute Z16 convert.

Convert
 

There was no convertible, we now have GM production records that show no convertibles were produced. Except perhaps as a prototype......

Paul

If you have documentation stating that there were no convertible, do you have the vin numbers of all the 201 cars?

He is referring to the internal Chevrolet Production Trends documents which list MOST ECL's broken out by car lines- the docs were internal for Chevrolet and circulated throughout the higher ups in marketing, management, planning, and sales to study "production Trends" -
IIRC the 65 Malibu SS is not a separate model - it is a malibu V8- with added parts - if there were no additional parts or different parts required to build a Z16 conv there would not be a separate ECL.

additionally - There are a number of low production options which are not shown in the ECL production data - Including 1969 Camaro NK1.

That's fine, still nice to make something even if GM didn't. Plus IF there were actually none made, no one can be upset about it.

BUT years ago, a friend restored the 1 of 6 GT350 coupes. EVERYONE said they never made one, except Carroll himself!! He saw it at a show they were at and HE'S the one that said "yes we did make 6 of them".

I always thought this too. The convertible started out as a rumor and made its way to urban myth status. I was always under the impression that only 200 hardtops were made

I don't want to start too much commotion but I probably had something to do with the "rumor". I talked to the person who owned it. He worked for GM and bought it internally.
Got his name from a guy that seen the car on a dyno at GM. I won't give any details (sorry) but the car was supposedly crushed by the guy that he sold it to. So the rumor continues!

Known trim tag date range runs from 02D to 03A (very few early cars for initial press release at proving grounds), and 03C to 04B. There are no known 03B cars.

There is old evidence of the Z16 convertible existing, from more than one source who did not know each other at the time, with exactly matching stories as to where it was sold new, who owned it first, and the colors. There were also two independent sources with matching stories of the car's demise in an accident. So I have no doubt it existed.

But Paul is correct that the ECL total for the Z16 option on 13867 [SS convertible] series cars is listed as 0 produced, while 201 is the total listed for the 13837 [SS coupe] series. (A production Z16 convertible would have its own ECL because an SS convertible already had a boxed frame while an SS coupe did not, which makes the parts content lists different for the two body styles.)

However, the ECL totals do not include COPO orders, or vehicles hand built at the Tech Center, so either of those could have been the origin of the Z16 convertible. And that seems likely since the interior and exterior colors were not from list of available colors for a "production" Z16.

Great to meet you this weekend Jeff...
I Love your ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS "part car part truck - dark blue ranchero" :hmmm:

My dad was really impressed with your attention to detail as well, he said the car just looks "right".

Jeff, what was the actual color combo of the convert Z16??

Sierra Tan, with Beige convertible top and either Fawn or Saddle interior. So, "triple tan". Not quite as appealing as triple black, IMO!

Thanks! Great to meet you and your brother too! And to see your nice cars!

It there a public Registry for Z16's? Sometimes when one is advertised for sale or at an auction it will say it is a certain number. Since all the VIN's aren't know I assume they are referring to it's number in a registry.

the story of the convertible Z-16 has been around for many years and if you google it there are many links that turn up, even some built cars

I always wondered if the car was a 1965 SS 396 Chevelle convertible built by Chevy with a 396 as a show car or prototype. If there was one built, did it have all the Z-16 items such as special trim, air filter, multiplex, remote mirror, hubcaps, 160-mph speedometer etc.

To me , there would be a difference between a car built as a 1965 SS 396 Chevelle convertible prototype and a car built as a Z-16 convertible with all the parts used on a Z-16 hardtop