Gary- I agree… I will not own any concours cars as ALL of mine are going to be driven. I hope that the owner of this stage drove the wheels off the car and enjoyed the hell out of it!
I say Redman is right, carb is a fraud. 1 and 4 are wrong and I highly doubt that Rochester re-tooled in mid production. Although this is a ‘72 Stage Service replacement or CA emission carb, they didn’t go back and forth using different fonts.
The "loaded to the gills" '72 Stage 1 I owned had a 2 page window sticker and the hood tach installed by the dealer before the original owner took possession...(he ordered it with the hood tach but factory put it in the trunk) I gave this a driver quality restoration with all matching numbers and sold it in about 1995. Last I heard it ended up with Fred Catlin and was to be either sold or restored by Mike Garrison as it was in miserable shape.
Even if we were wrong, and the carb isn't a restamp, it would be the wrong date for a September build. 307 is November, no? It's being represented as original in the comments. That kind of makes me pause a little. I love 72s, it's a nice car, and I'd own it at the right price. But yeah it's got some things not right about it.
Seller is Terry R from this website and I'm sure he is a swell guy. I'm a bidder on his car. Been back and forth with him about authenticity from day 1. He spins a good yarn, but each tale is thin. Says it was overhauled in 2013 and only has a few hundred miles on rebuild, won't show receipts just a pile of parts. She is a beauty...a $50K beauty, a $100K beauty, maybe more? Can't tell as I can't get an inspector there soon enough to make a difference and he absolutely refuses to post images/videos/receipts that I ask for; aside from a 25 second "exhaust rumble" video. I have a red/white 1972 GS455 convertible and have been looking for a real Stage 1 convertible with attributes that match mine plus some (like this one); column shift, bench with armrest, AC, nice dash gauges, tilt wheel, electric windows, etc. Whenever I run across an owner like this, I get awfully suspicious because he makes it sound too good to be true even when my eyes are telling me otherwise. Guess's on the final out the door price?
Good catch. So it's not the correct date for this car (and it is a restamp). My guess is that it will end as "Reserve Not Met" since the seller is not instilling confidence in the potential buyers by not post images/videos/receipts that have been requested.
Aha! I appreciate the help... Yeah, that's like 5 biggies that are flippantly wrong with the car. Maybe it can be had for less than $50K?
At its core, authenticity and some concours type errors aside, its still a 1972 Stage 1 vert, and they only made 81 of them. They don't come up for sale a lot and they generally aren't exactly cheap.
Guess's on the final out the door price? Similar V codes like this have been selling in $40-45k range that's what I would pay if I needed another..lol. Serious $ is reserved for the 70 stage1's which blow these 72's away in all round performance. I know even my 69 stage1's ran better than the 72's.
I don’t know what the ‘69 s ran but I can say what an original, loaded ‘72 ran for me. I bought an original ‘72 Stage 1 in 1993 from the original owner with 98,000 original miles on it and with all numbers matching components. Drove that car home from Maryland to Florida. I put plugs and points in it, advanced the timing a few degrees and drove it to our local track for a Wednesday test and tune. I made three passes all in the low 14s with a best of 14.0 at just under 100 mph. While that’s not ‘70 Stage 1 territory, it’s closer than many would think. I’m interested in hearing some as-built numbers for the ‘69 400s and Stage 1s.
Gary, I think you are correct on most everything. The problems that I mentioned I do not consider concourse items. Also if you look at the door gap and picture with door open it does not look correct. That is another reason that I thought the qtrs were replaced. I can overlook that but not the deck seam. The deck seam would my first fix, then the PW switches. Gary on the trans you could be correct but I think the VIN picture would be posted if it was correct. Gary that is several BB trans built on the 195 day. The Zone car I have now has that same tag date. You are correct on the 1 &4, I am sure the carb is a restamp. I have one with that date. As I said I like the car, especially the white interior. A few corrections and it would be a fun car to drive. As Chris answered Yes
