How is true "1 of#" determined?

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jack68gts

jack68gts

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Is there any criteria for determining the actual production number relevance when describing a vehicle as a 1 of #? I mean, there could be a car that has 2500 equally optioned counterparts,,but one happens to have a power antenna for example. It could be a 74 barracuda, 318 at bench seat, but it is a power antenna optioned car,,,does that make it a 1 of 1,,because it is the only one of 15000 74 barracuda 318 at bench seat with a power antenna? (I have no idea about these figures, it is just for conversations sake). What options actually discern a vehicle from other similarly optioned vehicles when it comes to production number claims of rarity?
 
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Just remember that at least "some" of it is promotion by people who are trying to justify the horrid expense they've gone to in order to "restore" a "classic" or "might be selling" the thing.
 
The "1 of whatever" is usually BS. A lot of the production records for these cars were lost, so, you can't determine it down to the level of one had a power antenna and one didn't. Some years there isn't even very good data for paint colors, they're listed by a percentage of production and not by individual numbers. Some of the performance package cars were tracked better, ie, this many R/T's, that many T/A's, auto vs manual, 340 vs 440, but that's about the level of detail.

So usually, when someone says it's a "1 of whatever" car, they're full of it. Galen Govier does a lot of that sort of thing, but his numbers are referenced to his database, which is not all inclusive. It's not the factory database. So, he might tell you that you've got a 1 of 13 car, but that just means he knows of 13 other cars like that. Not that there was only 13 made. My '71 butterscotch GT has a near clone up in Canada that the owner had decoded by Galen. It says it's #9 of 13 Windsor, Ontario built 318 GT's for US export, but there's more than 13 cars with those specs in the old '71 GT registry. So, the 1 of 13 thing from Galen was total BS. On top of that, Galen himself later wrote another member here that his GT was #15 of 30 Windsor, Ontario built 318 GT's for US export. So he "found" another 17 GT's built at Windsor with 318's for US export. Of course, I'm sure he didn't tell Mr. 9 of 13 that, so I'm sure his paperwork still says that.
 
You would have to have the original data on every car of a certain type made & then enter it into a database & see where it lead.

Since that is impossible, 'one of one made' type claims are bogus.

As one example from history, a magazine article decades ago mentioned that only 28 Challenger T/As were made in Panther Pink.

I am aware of over 90 - so far.

Numbers like that can only go up as more data comes in from examples known to have been built.
 
This is 1 of 1 of this type of car that I **** my pants in....

Does that make it unique????
 
Thats kinda what i figured,,but i am by no means an authority on anything,,but its a curiosity ive always had,, ,i had never heard of a criteria for establishing a "1 of" designation, and how far down the options list any criteria might be applicable to describe a vehicles rarity. I have a 68 gts 340 4spd convertible,,which i understand had lower production numbers because they apparently werent very popular of a combination, as opposed to low production numbers like hemi or 383 cars.
 
The criteria if there is one, seems to be a persons willingness to fabricate a story.
 
the only "real" 1 of 1 or 'one of none' that I'm pretty sure of is the 65 Valiant Formula "S" that a member here or over on slantsix.org has. It was a documented special order "S" package on a Valiant for a Chrysler VIP. My car is one of one with its SO number...:)
 
For mopar is basically the engine 340 440 six packs and hemis. That creates value.

For the Vette community little rare options can raise the value alot cause the all come with a performance engines.

Rare doesnt automatically translated into value, Desire does.
 
273 said:
For the Vette community little rare options can raise the value alot cause the all come with a performance engines.
Click to expand...

Describe the "performance" of the 78 Corvette engine. So little performance in fact, that a truck beat it out for fastest domestic vehicle that year.
 
The chances of any car being 1 of 1 is like winning the lottery....Not very good.

Enjoy your car, drive it :steering:
 
Galen states "known to exist". At least the few sheets I've seen at car shows. But yeah, it's like saying it's 1 of 1 in my neighborhood. I had 2 1 of 1 cars this summer (taking @pishta way of thinking). My friend has a 71 440+6 4 speed GTX, 1 of 72, according to the bill board he carries with the car, he even put it out at a very informal car gathering. All my cars are 1 of 1, they all have my touch involved, but never the same way!
 
RustyRatRod said:
Describe the "performance" of the 78 Corvette engine. So little performance in fact, that a truck beat it out for fastest domestic vehicle that year.
Click to expand...

Didn't say they always had good performance engines :) lol
 
1 of 1 is usually BS, although I'm sure there's some real 1 of 1 cars out there.

I know a local guy that has a Challenger he bought new. It's a very nice, original car and you can't take that away from it. It is a 340 car that was delivered with the wrong 383 pie plate on the air cleaner. For all these years, he has made the claim that his car is a "1 of 1" 383 small block that made it out to the public by mistake. He backs this up by claiming he made phone calls to the "factory" etc. He's been saying it so long now that he believes it himself and will get really annoyed when someone calls him on it.

He has a collection of cars that most Mopar guys would envy.... I think at least a dozen of them. All of them are low mileage and original and very nice. He makes the claim on all of them that they are "1 of 1" in some fashion with a big fabricated story. They are some rare, low production cars... no doubt, but not "1 of 1".
 
There are certain production numbers that are as factual as possible, such as the number of Hemi 1970 Coronet R/T convertibles.

Of course even the factory numbers can be incorrect.

There was a factory Hemi 1967 Satellite down here for a few years.

I almost bought it three times back when I was young and didn't have any money.

The second time, it came with a letter from Chrysler stating that "...all 1967 B body Plymouths equipped with the 426 Hemi engine were GTX models..."
(basically stating there were none built)

The third time it came with a second letter from Chrysler stating "...approximately 5 (five) 1967 Plymouth Satellites were equipped with the 426 Hemi engine..."

I believe since then there have been 8 total discovered and verified.
 
And there were export cars too.
I know about some 70/71 Hemi Cudas, which went to France and Switzerland then.
I know a highly optioned 440-6bbl R/T Charger delivered to Austria in 1971.

We (my son and me) own three of these very special equipped export cars for Austria; I presume these cars are not considered in the numbers by Govier.

Definitely not included in these numbers are the Swiss production Mopars.
 
When I think 1 of 1 car, I think like the first HemiCuda convertible.......things like that. Not much "if any" really falls into that category, simply because it is so difficult to define.

But as everyone seems to agree, usually it's all BS simply to get an unrealistic amount of money for a car otherwise not worth it.
 
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