Are these your cars? If so please post photos of the data plates. What is the number between the LOR and BDY on the data plate?

Yes, they are my cars. I will dig up the data plate photos to post.

#'s between LOR and BDY are:

SHOW1 for the convertible

SHOW4 for the Hardtop

Hard to believe the one and two cars weren't destroyed at some point. Also it's interesting that the very first one was a vert and the second one an HO.

Very interesting to see these first two birds. Thanks for sharing and good luck on your sale.

Dave

Would a 6 cylinder car been built before these ones?

no

the last 5 digits of the vin are always unique no mater weather a 6 or 8 engine

Actually the question about a 6 cylinder car being built before these is a good one. Unless you actually worked at the plant and documented the order they ran down the line no one knows the true order. The 6 cylinder cars were built on the same line at the same time but use a different vin sequence for the last 6 digits, the last 6 digits start with 6 while V-8 cars start with 1. While those two cars 100001 and 100002 are without a doubt the first two V-8 firebirds built the first 6 cylinder car was 600001 and was built on the same line right along with the V-8 cars. The 5th V-8 car built 100005 surfaced several years ago. It was a loaded 400 convertible and was also a GM show car billed to zone 35 dealer 997. The firewall tag next to the body number was SHOW8. Notice that car 100002 is body SHOW4. Interestingly if the 2nd V-8 car was already body 4 and the 5th v-8 car built was already the 8th body what happened to the bodies in there already not accounted for. It would be likely to suspect those bodies were used for 6 cylinder cars. Car 100005 had a body date of 12C, those two V-8 cars 1 and 2 are 12B dated bodies. Both V-8 cars 1 and 2 were invoiced to zone 7 dealer 991 on 2/16/1967, apparently that was when they started tracking billing history as if memory serves me car 100005 was also 2/16/67. Another interesting bit of info is that the billing date on the billing history does not actually tell you the build order either. By that what I mean is a car with a higher sequential vin number may have an billing history date prior to one with a lower vin. According to Jim Mattison at PHS it was because a car was not invoiced until it was actually ready to go. If a car came off the line and had to have some fixes or imperfections redone it would not get billed until those were finished and the car was ready to go.

Now that there makes a lot of sense! Thanks for the input.

Vin #000001, Show #1 Red/Red ragtop, wow ! Same Michigan dealer zone # on both. Id say that dealer had to be a VIP . The "SHOW"/pilot cars were normally destroyed so the fact they even exist is amazing.

Wouldn't it make sense for them to throw every option available at the time on the first couple of cars if they were going to be showcased around the country at all the new car shows?

I believe they sent 10 cars or so[coupe and convertible of all engine types] to the chicago Auto show that year. The 1 and 2 car appear to have some very odd option combinations as well. Cruise,tilt,hood tach,power windows,4 speed,discs,fold down ,among others. I believe alot of the fully "loaded" cars [actually the 1 and 2 combined do have alot of comfort/visible options with one exception being AC ]were the ones that were saved in house and not for display , to be option/other tested and ultimately destroyed as the couldnt be returned to service. Made financial sense to work and test on a single car that had all the options. Im also guessing that they wouldnt have built a car for display that wasnt available in that configuration to the public [IE a 6 cyl 4 speed, among others. Also think about it,as far as display and advertising goes, a loaded 400 4 speed w hood tach wouldnt have the appeal to potential female[PLEASE no hate mail!!!] buyers as a red /red column auto convertible. Seems to me #1 was made to be displayed with a certain group in mind ,and the #2 HO 4 speed for another . I think its not a coincidence that #1 and #2 were built as contrasting as they were.

My 6-Sprint was built in Van Nuys, CA if that helps.