APPARENT MISTAKES

I prefer to start from the premise that Plymouth, initially, intended to build 1925 Superbirds.  I base this on the fact that the NASCAR list, when sorted by VIN, appears to describe 29 "runs" of numbers.  The total number of VINs in these apparent runs is 1925.  Also, we know that NASCAR required 1920 cars be built to satisfy their definition of a 'production' vehicle.  We know from previous examples of similar vehicles, that when Chrysler was required to build a street version of a specialty race car, they sometimes built an extra 5 cars.  With these ideas in mind, I choose to believe that the originally intended number of cars was 1925.  I suspect that, like anything in the real world, circumstances arose that required the building of more than were originally intended.

The "mistakes" in the NASCAR list, if they are mistakes, are often easily explained.  Anyone who has tried to type the NASCAR list into a spreadsheet, or tried to work with someone else to verbally announce and record long numbers will nod their head in recognition when I say that it is very easy to get the numbers wrong.  517 becomes 571 or 617 or ???  This is especially true after about 45 minutes of working with these numbers.  At some point, one's brain just becomes mush and the numbers blur into 091956529348603625blahblahblah...

Keep in mind that the NASCAR list was compiled in 1969.  There were, for practical purposes, no personal computers back then.  The NASCAR list looks like it was manually typed into a preprinted form/page.  Well I am reasonably certain that someone wasn't outside during a Midwestern winter with a typewriter recording these numbers.  Someone had to be recording them by writing them on paper.  And that someone had to be at the Clairpointe Sub-assembly plant.  We know this because the NASCAR list includes the date of arrival at Clairpointe and the date of departure from the Clairpointe plant.

Whomever recorded the arrival of the car at Clairpointe may have done so in the comfort of the plant while the car was receiving final assembly.  But whomever recorded the departure would have had to do so in conjunction with the loading of the cars.

If, as I suspect, the VIN recording process included at least one transfer of the data from the car to paper by an individual using a pen/pencil, then many of the mistakes are easily explained.  Just for fun, try reading your own VIN tag through the windshield and writing it down.  See how long and how much effort it takes to get it right.  Even worse are the door tag VINs.  You practically have to stand on your head to read them.  When you add in the possibility of mis-reading the VIN and the tendency to transpose digits when writing them down, it is ASTONISHING that the list is even vaguely accurate.  I am amazed that it is not 50% mistakes.  Especially when you consider that this had to only be half of the recording process.  Now, a clerical worker would have to try to read someone else's handwriting of the VINs and type it into the forms.  Well, that clerical worker faces the same recognition/comprehension and transposition error potentials that the original recorder of the VIN faces.  Now we have twice as many chances for errors.  Again, I am amazed that we have as few apparent errors as we do.

MISTAKES DUE TO LEGIBILITY

If you have ever tried to read VIN numbers on the dash tag, door tag or fender tag, you know how easy it is to get the numbers wrong.  The fonts make many numbers look very similar to other numbers.  The dash and fender tag numbers don't have a different colored background to distinguish them.  3s look like 8s.  5s look like 6s.  In fact, almost any number can be mistaken for any other if you are in a hurry.

For example: 160637 is a VIN number from the NASCAR list that falls between runs.  Right below it is the missing number 160687 in the middle of a run.  The obvious, but potentially erroneous, explanation is that the 8 was mistaken to be a 3 when the number was recorded.  This could have happened when someone was recording the number off the car, OR, it could have happened when someone was trying to read someone else's handwriting and typing the number into the pre-printed form.

Many of the potential errors in the list can be easily explained when one thinks about how similar one number looks to another.

ERRORS DUE TO TRANSPOSITION OF DIGITS

I have not found many REALLY obvious examples of this such as a 527 being recorded as 572.  161558 is recorded twice.  Right below it is the missing VIN 161585.  It seems pretty obvious that the duplicate offsets the missing number.  When reading these numbers, they have the same effect on the brain as 'tongue twisters'.  "The Sheik's sixth sheep is sick" becomes a mess of vowel and consonant sounds if one gets in a hurry.  The same thing is true of long runs of numbers.  As I look through the data further, something may come up that is less obvious.  The easy examples to find would be if two of the last three digits were swapped.  Then the correct VIN would be nearby and obvious.  If the second and third digits were swapped such as 167 and 176, however, the answer would not be as easy to find.

MISTAKES DUE TO LOT STORAGE OR SHIPPING

I have done some assembly line retrofitting work on a large number of vehicles.  It is very easy to lose track of whether you have inspected any specific vehicle when you are looking at a field of 50 of them.  It would not surprise me if a few of the mistakes were simply due to overlooking a vehicle or checking the same vehicle twice.  Recording a VIN twice by accidentally re-checking a vehicle already checked is certainly a plausible error.  Missing a vehicle altogether seems a bit more odd.  Especially since there is an in date and out date.  The vehicle would have to have been missed twice.  Unless of course the in date was just written on the windshield or something like that.  And then later the data was recorded only when the vehicle was shipped.

I had hopes that the side notes on the list might clear up some questions.  Several dozen cars have a note mentioning it either being returned to Lynch Road or to Clairpointe.  I thought that these cars may have been some that were recorded twice by accident.  No such luck, however.  None of the multiple trip cars had VINs that matched the problem VINs.