Early A K-member help
And that thing about how the '62 B-bodies were emergency-downsized because of an overheard garden party GM exec comment about the upcoming '62 Chev is a
silly myth.
Myth or not, it is persistent.
That is true—there's all kinds of nonsense and made-up bulk wrap that's very persistent as "common knowledge".
Even Collectible Automobile states in its December, 1996 article about the aborted Plymouth Super Sport that William Newberg of Chrysler heard it from Ed Cole of GM when they played golf together, and even names the specific golf course where they played. The source that Collectible Auto relied upon was William Brownlie, a retired Chrysler styling and production executive.
Collectible Automobile is generally one of the better mags in terms of checking their damn facts, but they're still like an engine running a points-condenser ignition system: even when it's perfectly tuned, with brand-new points and everything, if you go listen at the back you're going to hear misfires, chuffs and splutters mixed in with the exhaust note.
As for their source being a retired Chrysler styling and production executive: yeah, he's the same guy who wrongly said the '62 A- and B-body cars share body parts. There are errors like this all over Allpar, too, with retired Chrysler engineers telling stories and talking about stuff that never actually happened. There is a reason people retire, and there is a thing that happens to our minds and memories with advancing age. Even at its best, the human memory is nothing like the camcorder we like to think it is—and remember, we're talking about people who were just doing their damn job. There wouldn't have been a sense of making history; no where-were-you-when-the-'62-Plymouth-launched, nothing like that. Bent metal, motors and wheels, different than last year and next year, engineered and built to tight cost constraints, handed off to the marketers to do their thing, then focus on the next one. Lather-rinse-repeat for however many years.
Dan, now you've got me curious: Why, in the absence of the claimed misinformation that Newberg thought he heard from Ed Cole, do you think Chrysler decided against producing the Super Sport in favor of the smaller '62 Plymouth?
I wasn't there; all I can do is speculate: it was probably a plain old return-on-investment calculation. Was it rightly or wrongly decided? We'll never know and it doesn't matter; the SS didn't get built. For detailed analysis, I think the article I linked probably comes as close as anyone is likely to.
One more item: The Schumacher A-body LA engine mount kits (even their engine hold-down turnbuckle kit), which are advertised as fitting only '63-'66 A-body K-frames, also fit a '62 just fine
Yes, because '62-'66 A-body K-frames are the same. People who don't quite know what they're talking about sometimes guess wrong, and people who do know what they're talking about sometimes make errors.
