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HOW MANY SUPERBIRDS WERE BUILT?
This question is virtually impossible to answer. If for no other reason than the varying definitions as to what constitutes a "Superbird". Do we count the "body in white" rolling shells built to become race cars? Do we count the Hemi street Superbird pulled from the line to be modified into the famous cheater drag car?
When most people ask: 'How many Superbirds were built?' they usually mean: How many were made for the public to buy?
So our more clarified question becomes:
HOW MANY SUPERBIRDS WERE BUILT FOR SALE TO THE PUBLIC?
We know that NASCAR required 1920 be built for public sale to meet their rules but were more than that constructed? To try and answer that question we turn first to the best source of information we have - The NASCAR Serial Number List. This list does in fact have exactly 1920 entries. It also has what APPEAR to be a number of errors.
There are some VIN numbers that are listed twice. These could be errors in the recording of the codes or errors in the assignment of the codes. At least one case of two different legitimate cars having the same VIN number from the factory seems to have occurred. At least one example of a Hemi, 4-speed coded car being built as a 4 barrel automatic seems to have been authenticated. Mistakes were made. I personally had a 1970 two-door Imperial with the dash VIN coded as a 4 door.
In addition to the duplicated VINs, there are also a fair number of seemingly "missing" VIN numbers. Once the numbers from the list are sorted consecutively by VIN it becomes quite apparent that Superbirds were not just randomly built and given a VIN as the process unfolded. The VINs appear in runs of consecutive numbers - anywhere from a handful of cars to over 100 consecutive cars. Sometimes, in the middle of a "run" of codes, there is one missing. Often nearby is a duplication of another VIN number that is suspiciously similar. The obvious, but potentially erroneous, explanation is that one code was incorrectly recorded twice and the correct code, which should have been written down, never made it into the list.
You can see why, at this point, it is impossible to determine exactly how many cars were built based upon the NASCAR list alone. To be safe, when people ask about production numbers I say: Less than two thousand were built. I believe that number safely accounts for any discrepancies in the data, production mistakes and/or varying interpretations of the question itself.
With the data we have, we can float conjecture as to a more accurate production number. Conjecture is fun so here we go.
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Greetings All, To help clarify things, I have inserted the VINs that appear to be missing from the runs of numbers. These inserted numbers will be in red and have a ? where the car number would be. The number of "missing" VINs varies depending upon how you count them. I come up with 41 VINs missing from inside runs. Of course we could be missing the beginning or ending VIN in a run and we would not know it. The VINs that are duplicated are in purple. There are 21 sets of duplicated numbers. To the right of these colored entries is a potential explanation in blue. Also in blue at the end of the list are four cars that had 5 digit or 7 digit VIN codes entered into the list. The green entries are cars known to exist that don't show up on the list at all. Often they fill in a missing VIN spot perfectly. In some cases they fall between runs. These are cars that Joe Ward and I came across while compiling data on as many cars as possible. At present I have some basic option data, or at least confirmation from a source other than the NASCAR list, for about 800 cars. We found confirmation of the existence of 15 [16 as of 2010/02/01] of the 41 (inside a run) missing cars. We found evidence for another 8 cars that are not on the list and fall between the runs. Below are a series of emails that I sent to Ken Presley, noted Superbird restorer. These emails detail the sorting process leading up to the list to the right. Email 1 Greetings Ken,
This will be the first of several emails containing various Excel spreadsheets with Superbird VIN data. Please find attached an electronic duplication of the paper version of the Nascar Serial Number list that we all have. The electronic version is identical to the original in all ways except that I have corrected a few of the obvious typographical errors. I only corrected those that were obvious mistakes. Anything that was open to question, I left as is. I also went back and checked a 1969 calendar to see what days of the week corresponded to dates on the list. It appears that this was a Monday through Friday affair. It shows no cars arriving or shipping on Saturdays or Sundays. More to come, Brennan Email 2 Greetings Ken,
This spreadsheet is the a sorted version of the original Nascar Serial Number list. It is sorted by VIN number highest to lowest. As you know, this makes finding a given car much easier as the original list is not in order by vin. This list still contains all the duplicate vins and is missing the vins that one would expect to find in a "run" of vins assigned to Superbirds. One interesting thing is the apparent tendency to build large runs according to engine type. There are stretches of U and V codes. More to come, Brennan Email 3 Greetings Ken, Email 4 Greetings Ken, Brennan HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION #1 Let's
assume that Chrysler was on the ball when it came to assigning the VINs to the Superbird project. Let's say that they
knew they had to build 1920 cars and, as they had done with other specialty street versions of race cars, they decided to
build a handful more than the minimum required amount. That would mean they intended to build 1925 cars. How many
cars would the assigned runs of VINs total up to if one ignores all the duplicates, missing numbers and numbers that fall
between runs? What is the total number of VINs assigned if one totals up all the runs? Well, it turns out to be
1925! If you make a number of potentially erroneous assumptions, such as; we have the beginning and ending VINs of every
run, and then add up all the VINs making up these runs, you get 1925 cars. Interesting. To the right of the list you will
see the "Span" or run of VINs and a running total. The number in the span is not the actual quantity taken
from the list. It is the hypothetical amount if one assumes a Superbird was built for each VIN in the run. So,
for example, Span two has a total of 10 cars despite one VIN in the middle not showing up on the list.
FOR ANOTHER DISCUSSION ON PRODUCTION NUMBERS, PLEASE CLICK ON THIS TEXT.  |
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