Legend Lime 2006 Mustang Story and photos by John Gunnell
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any muscle car owners are interested in knowing how many cars just like theirs were made. They may read in a Pontiac history book that 32,737 Pontiac GTO hardtops like their car were made for the 1970 model year. But then they will want to know how many had bucket seats and four-speed manual transmissions and
Ram Air III V8s. And the next question is, how many were painted Code 75 Cardinal Red with a black interior? In rare cases, some or all of these questions may have an answer, but keep this in mind. When General Motors Chairman Alfred P. Sloan wrote a book called My Years With General Motors in 1963, he pointed out that it was theoretically possible, due to the wide assortment of options and accessories offered in 1959, for Chevrolet Motor Div. to manufacture an entire year’s worth of cars without any two being 100 percent identical. When it comes to production totals of cars by colour, it usually—but not always—gets hard to come up with specific numbers. Every year, industry sources report the most popular colours. For example, in 2020, White was first in popularity, Black was second and Grey was third. These numbers are interesting, but they are not exactly what enthusiasts or collectors want to know. However, some car nuts—such as Corvette fans--have been able to come up with specific information on how many cars were built in each colour.
Mustang 50th anniversary window sticker was picked up in Charlotte, N.C. in 2014. 36 MUSCLE CAR PLUS MAGAZINE JUNE/JULY 2022
That was simple in 1953, when all 300 firstyear Corvettes were Polo White. However, the next year Corvette output jumped to 3,634 cars of which 3,200 were Polo White, 300 were Pennant Blue, 100 were Sportsman Red and four were Black. If you haven’t guessed it yet, a Black 1954 Corvette with good documentation is worth a bundle.
