[HuSSker]

I found something interesting when researching the "other" 13 Impalas built before mine. The first 11 had the following option:

VS7 VEHICLE NON-SALEABLE NON-SALEABLE VEH(VS7)

With that said, it appears that there are (or were) only two out there in the hands of the public built before mine.

It would be interesting to find out what these first 11 cars were used for, and where they are, or what was their demise.

One other interesting note. These 11 cars also had this option listed:

F01 FRAME,HEAVY DUTY HVY DUTY FRM(F01)

According to Compnine, these were the ONLY Caprices that got this option. Not sure what to make of that one...cwm6

At any rate, fun facts to know and share.

 

[Navy Lifer]

Lance, the explanation is as simple as magazine lead times....pre-production cars had to be built to go to the automotive press, for advertising/art purposes, to display at auto shows, and for executive use. These cars (probably) were crushed at some point, per GM policy--heavy-duty frame & all.

Unit 1 Build Date: 1993-09-09

Unit 2 Build Date: 1993-09-10

Unit 3 Build Date: 1993-10-20

Unit 4 Build Date: 1993-10-20

Unit 5 Build Date: 1993-12-07

Unit 6 Build Date: 1993-12-08

Unit 7 Build Date: 1993-12-09

Unit 8 Build Date: 1994-01-25

Unit 9 Build Date: 1994-01-26

Unit 10 Build Date: 1994-01-27

Unit 11 Build Date: 1994-01-28

Unit 12 Build Date: 1994-02-14 (first car without VS7 - last 6 of VIN 140397)

Unit 13 Build Date: 1994-02-15

Unit 14 Build Date: 1994-02-15 (your car)

Even after your car, the next 50 Impala SS cars took a week, built 02-16 to 02-22 (while building a bunch of Caprices at the same time) from VIN 141029 to 143499 - only 50 out of 2470 cars built in that period of time had RPO WX3--about 2% of the Chevy B-body production--it took awhile to get production ramped up. By the end of the 94 model year, Impala SS was 6.3% of total Caprice/Impala production (6303 of 99759). FWIW, the 99759 may not be accurate--Compnine appears to show that there were 96.919 cars built in this number sequence (Chevy sedans) in 1994.

I was stationed in Hawaii during this period, but was traveling in early 1994 and made a stopover in Chicago--got to check out the annual Chicago Auto Show (mid-Feb)--and there was an SS on display there. Couldn't get close to it, so there was no way to get a VIN, and it would not have occured to me "back then" that it might be useful information to have in the future.

Being in Hawaii, it took quite a while for an Impala SS to show up on Oahu--one of the earliest I saw there was being used as a taxi!!! Lots of HPD officers used the car (privately owned) on duty, but no more--ten year limit required them to be "retired" from actual blue-light service.

The first 94 Impala SS I saw anywhere on the road, to my recollection, was at the first Brickyard 400, in early August 1994. I knew at that moment I was hooked.....

Another RPO to look at: YE8 Engineering Test Vehicle (total of 9 cars in 1994 in this number series)

 

[CapriceSScaBEAST]

i know im going to sound a little dumb right now lol
but navy lifter how do you know all this information and every single build date of all those vehicles?

 

[HAZZARDJOHN]

Psychic friends network

 

[Navy Lifer]

....how do you know all this information and every single build date of all those vehicles?

I've got a copy of the SS production sequence database, which lists VIN's. The build dates aren't listed for 94's, so I run each VIN on the Compnine.com VIN search (this is for the VERY FIRST 94 Impala SS built--not sold to the public), which provides a build date--accuracy not guaranteed, but in the ball park, by a day or so either way.

 

[HuSSker]

By the end of the 94 model year, Impala SS was 6.3% of total Caprice/Impala production (6303 of 99759). )

That certainly changed over the next two years. If you look at the sequence for '96 WX3's, it is not unusual at all to see places on the list where about every other one was an SS, or groups of two or three at a time.

 

[BrandonG777]

I saw one of those VS7s for sale on eBay awhile back. It was on a story on Jalopnik I believe.

 

[Carlton]

Anyone know when the first new shape b-body was built? Mine comes up as march 15 1990 and has a build number in the 18000's.
No idea how many would they build on an average day. Dozens? Hundreds?