<VV> That famous car...

[airvair]

There actually were several REAL '65 Monza Spyders built and sold. One
showed up at the Birmingham Mini-convention in '75, a red coupe with red
interior. I personally inspected the car and at the time I had no reason
to doubt its authenticity. Also, Dave Newell has found evidence of
possibly several others, but as of recently we have not been able to
find these cars or re-authenticate them.

As to the name change, I doubt that there was any dispute with Ferrari,
as the term "spyder" is commonly used among European makes to designate
a certain body style. It therefore is not a trademarked name. GM changed
the name from Spyder to Corsa so as to differenciate the early and late
models, being that the turbo was to no longer be standard in the
proposed model. It WAS a late decision, and such things as the turbo
sticker were already designed, if not in the works. It's also why the
Monza cross is high on the front fender, to allow the Spyder logo to be
placed under it.

BTW, that car with all the zeros in the VIN could have been a pilot car.
Pilot cars are a batch of salable cars that are first produced after the
pre-production "test" cars are built to get all the bugs out of the
assembly process. The pilot cars are typically used by the corporation
for various purposes, such as photo ops, press core testing, and even
sometimes crash testing. Afterwards, many that are still salable are
sold, usually to employees as PEP vehicles and such. Today, a pilot car
is a rare beast, as attrition usually wipes out most of them early on. 

-Mark

Charles Lee at Proper Pro Per wrote:
> 
> Well, there was a 1965 Spyder - I saw it on the cover of October 1964 Sports
> Car Graphic ?  Or was it Car & Driver ?
> 
> Was the name changed because Ferrari disputed GM's use of their trademark,
> or that the ladies thought spiders are yucky ?
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Grant Young" <gyoungwolf at earthlink.net>
> Subject: <VV> That famous car...
> 
> > Well, I just met the previous owner of that rare 1964
> > 4-door/sedan/whatever that had zeros in all places in the serial number
> > except the last one, and that was a "2". Says it was worth $24,000 and
> > sure wished he had kept it....Same guy asked me if the '65 Monza
> > convertible in my garage was a Spyder :-). I said "sure" and we concluded
> > the deal on my used electric range for $50.
> > Grant