1965 A-body pilot car!

[65dartcharger]

I just read the latest issue of Mopar Action. They had a great story about the first 1970 Hemi Challenger Pilot car. Job number 12 and VIN#100015.
I know that Chrysler back in the day had the intension to scrap all pilot cars. They were simply a test mule for different departments to check out certain things.
But during my 39 years in early A-bodies I have never ever heard of a 1965 (or other years) Dart, Valiant or Barracuda pilot car.
My question is if anyone has any information about these cars? I would love to see the codes on the fendertag, any special tags like job number 10 or something like that. Or, was it just simply nothing special on the fendertags on those car. They was just assembled first week of August!
Any input would be appriciated.

 

[65 Dartman]

I too have never heard of a 65 (or for that matter any A Body) called a pilot car in my years of dealing with early A’s and other A Bodies.

 

[Mr. Sinister]

A bodies were just a much better concept so they didnt need a pilot car. "A" Body Plan "A" JMO.

 

[Syleng1]

I have not seen any info about early abodies being test cars either. My assumption is they were crushed or sent to technical training programs. I also will assume because the chassis is so similar built that once a design was passed there was no need to look back.
Example 1964 model test mule was used for 65 and 66 changes. 67’ mile was used to test 68-69 changes.
Again opinion only- just seems logical.

 

[Dartnut]

I also heard a long time ago that some of the pre production test cars were used as crash test cars or donated to racers who just chopped them up and used them as they pleased.........

 

[Garrett Ellison]

Although not an A body, one of the neatest things I’ve seen on eBay was an E body patterning body. I believe the story was that Dick Landy racing had bought it when trying to buy a “body in white” for a race car. All the patterning bodies were crushed because they were used as templates which critical dimensions were measured from as bodies were being spot welded together coming down the line, and supposedly the process was closely guarded as a corporate secret. It had legs welded from the suspension and K frame mounting points and plates that bolted to floor with a string of zeros followed by 1 s/n on the vin and the fender plate had information about the body shells intended purpose.

 

[SSVDP]

Good question.
There might be some early A pilot cars somewhere.
I’m not an expert but some could have been used or even sold. It wasn’t like today with the extensive federal certification requirements and there wasn’t the same amount of legal liabilities either.