<VV> Louis Pinard '68 on ebay

[Brent Covey]

Hi Bruce,

>  interesting, low-miles, original, '68
> "factory hot-rod" coupe for him.

Thats a pretty cute little car!

Looking thru a GM shipping information list of cars destined for Canadian
distribution in 1968 I ran across a couple small runs of 5-10 cars just like
this one.

Some Toronto area dealers (City Chevrolet, Gorries, Golden Mile Chev-Olds)
started ordering 'hot' 500's for subsequent modifications (pretty mild,
things like radial ply tires and fire extinguishers were added) to sell in
the performance car lots. Canada Track and Traffic magazine tested a '66 500
coupe one issue, but the practice seemed to continue thru '68 at least.
There may have been 25-75 cars ordered like this in Canada over the
1966-1968 era as a minimum I'd say. The cars got all the performance stuff;
F41, N44, L63, M20, G81.

The eBay car would be pretty interesting and looks like its pretty nice.
With the '68 140 smog engine it would have its hands full showing a '65
110HP a clean set of heels but guess thats the way it goes! I like that
paint colour which I rarely have encountered on a '68 Corvair. It was a
popular Impala colour up here, however.

Some other observations about all those '68's I was looking at- fully half
the cars shipped here were either red or yellow I'd say. Lots were LOADED
Monza coupes, with unusual equipment like remote mirrors, clocks and fancy
steering wheels, which are not typical to order in Canada on earlier cars
nor as a general thing on Chevrolets period, which suggests they were
demonstrators for GM employees (who always get everything possible), so
probably the loaded examples were destined for AC Delco company cars etc.

GM's policy re company cars was the junior employees like salesmen could
order any car they wanted as they would like it that was no fancier a line
than Delta 88. Big Buicks, Cadillacs and some imported lines like GTO were
reserved for management above a certain level. Some options were not
allowed, FM radios was one that could get you called on the carpet- it added
a fair amount to the cost of the car and until the middle 1970's there were
few Canadian cities with FM stations so driving the cost of your
demonstrator up with an extra $100 radio that didnt recieve anything was
frowned upon. Air Conditioning was encouranged on demos after 1967.

GM let the employees drive the cars until they hit 3000 miles when the
employee turned the car back in and got another. GM would wholesale the car
for the price the dealer pays GM for a new car, and GM has a free car to
loan the employee and saved themselves having to do an oil change by
recovering the car from the employee before it was due. Good system!

Brent Covey
Vancouver BC