First Registered Reattas

[tbenvie]

Haven't owned a Reatta for quite awhile now (though I still have a lot of Allantes) but come back here every once in awhile. Saw a post about #105 being the first car sold. I researched these cars quite thoroughly a number of years ago and have the following info to share (thought I did before)

Cars up to VIN 100050 were assigned to GM or subsidiary. 
#39 was the convertible prototype
Most had a build date of June 10, but some were Oct 12 (and not in VIN order)
Many had Cloth seats (not the suede/leather)
9, 10, 26 had 16 way seats, then 37-50 all had them
None had a sunroof

#40 was the Motor Trend test car

8, 9, 10 were assigned to New York for testing

38, 42, 43, 44 were sent to Oshawa Canada for testing

61 was the first with the suede bolsters
66 was the first titled- in Ypsilanti MI and scrapped in 1999 with 165,000 miles
most of the cars 77-88 were used by the press for roadtests then scrapped

81 was titled in Northridge, CA and scrapped in 2009 with 104,000 miles

89 was titled in San Bruno, CA and scrapped in 2005

95 was titled in Kokomo, IN and may still be alive

141 is the PPG Pace Car

102-150 were mostly all titled in a number of different states. As of 10 years ago 104, 105, 129, 144, and 149 were still alive

There were 227 Reattas made for the Canadian market with the mandatory Canadian equipment 
K05 Heater, Engine Block

V97 VEHICLE PREPARATION(EXPORT) 

Z49 MANDATORY CANADIAN BASE EQUIPMENT MODIFICATIONS

And a separate comment about cars without titles. Some states such as Maine does not have a title law for pre 1999 cars. A simple Bill of Sale will get you a registration that can then be used in any state to get a title.(Maybe other states as well, but I'm from Mass so know about Maine). Vermont did the same until a few years ago. Do a search and you will find them. 

Edited 23 hours ago by tbenvie (see edit history)

[KDirk]

Any idea why the cars that were assigned for press testing were subsequently scrapped? I can't imagine they put that many miles or wear and tear on those particular cars, so unless they were reassigned for some other use for a while after that and then scrapped, I find it surprising that they would have been disposed of so quickly.

 

I guess if they couldn't be titled as regular production cars, then there wasn't much else that could've been done with them under GM's corporate rules at the time. 

[EmTee]

6 hours ago, KDirk said:

Any idea why the cars that were assigned for press testing were subsequently scrapped? I

Just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did not meet all of the applicable federal certification requirements.  They were probably built and distributed to the press under a limited pre-production exemption.