I'd have to pull my old documentation out (unless it's on the AAR site) but there were options that were no allowed to be combined with the Trans Am packages. I believe V02 was one of the ones listed as not allowed with the AAR package. Also, unlike Challengers vinyl tops were limited to black on AARs.

I agree with Barry. The vendor wouldn't know or care what was offered.

Dodge could have decided that V02 would be offered on the T/A in case someone wanted to have one that looked like the race cars, but I don't remember what the timing was. It's equally likely that they just decided that since V02 didn't interfere with any of the Trans Am package options it didn't matter if they allowed it or not, unlike say sill moldings, BSM, rear spoiler or a shaker.

That's been a story long related but I'm not sure I believe it. Are there any shots of the car with a green roof? Maybe they just wanted it to look like it had a vinyl top from a distance. :-)

Wait, I just remembered that the cars had vinyl tops at one point because there was too much green (Posey hated the color).

OK. When I had my T/A engine rebuilt in Marblehead MA, it was in an old industrial park with several small companies. While the T/A was in the repair shop, the owner of the shop mentioned to me that the Sam Posey 77 car had all the suspension and roll cage work done in the building right next door. He said it was done by a company called autodynamics. Then he told me that the man who is in the building now building small rowing boats actually used to work for autodynamics back in the day. I went over and introduced myself and told him my T/A was being worked on. I asked him about what they had told me. He told me he in fact worked there and the Sam Posey 77 car was built right in that building and he worked on it as well. He also told me Sam Posey moved into a house right around the corner to be close to the work on a daily basis. He said the car was shipped to them body in white from a local dodge dealer. They went to work on it and Sam would come over every day to see the progress. When the car was done it was returned to the dealer to have the paint done now that the fender flaring and other body work was complete. When the car was returned from the dealer, it was all sublime green top to bottom. He told me he was there the day Sam came in and saw the car for the first time since being in the shop. He walked up to the car and stood next to it and said to the guys there. "you are kidding me, they want me to drive this aweful green car around a racetrack." They told Sam the car color was not his decision to make as the car belonged to Dodge. At that point Sam told them he was not going to drive that car like that in that color. He told them to get the green out of my face. Send it back and have the top painted black. That is the story Mr Harkness told me to be true from way back then. It is my belief based on what I read and was told about the SCCA rules, the cars they sold to the public had to have options that would be able to be bought by the general public. Dodge had to ad the V02 two tone option to those special sheets they sent for the pre-orders of the T/A cars they would sell. Plymouth never had that issue and their Pre-order sheets did not have the V02 option code as an item dealers could order. That is why T/A cars had the option and AAR cars do not exist with two tone paint. But on a general non AAR car, you had that option in the salesman book. I assume that the local dealer who saw what the 77 car looked like with the painted black top placed an order for my T/A as it was born in Massachusetts. I think both cars came from Lynnway Dodge in Lynn MA which is 3 miles from where the 77 car was done. As you see, most T/A cars had the vinyl top or solid color. I think you have to see the black painted top to understand how it made the car look a lot lower and a lot longer. That it what I always came to appreciate about my V02 car. And I would love to ask Sam Posey about that story, but I believe Mr Harkness to be a straight up guy. He even showed me black and white photos still hanging on the wall with the 77 car being worked on by the crew. Just thought I would share this as I think it really is a cool story.

Does your pre-order sheet show the Sunroof option?

I agree. Sam and Autodynamics had no knowledge of option codes or even colors. The cars were delivered with no codes. But that did not preclude the fact that Chrysler still had to live by SCCA rules with these cars. That is why Sam was surprised by the sublime green when he set eyes on it. That is why he was able to just say paint the roof black without even thinking about option codes. However, because he painted his roof black, Chrysler had to make that color code option available to the general public for any T/A cars. The T/A cars and the AAR cars both had their own spec sheet in which dealers could order from. Kind of a custom menu. It even deleted a lot of the colors in which you could by a regular Cuda or Challenger. So yes, Sam and Autodynamice new nothing about this stuff, but Chrysler, who was the actual owner and sponser of the cars they provided had to abide by the SCCA rules. My source is Mr Harkness, who actually worked on the T/A car back in 1969 and 70. I am just trying to capture historical facts of how these cars were ordered and why T/A have V02 and AAR do not. And I think the reason there were so few V02 T/A cars was that it was a very local decision to paint the top, Chrysler added the V02 code to the T/A custom order sheet and the local dealer saw how cool the car looked and order a couple to sell. As stated, my V02 car is a local car as I am aware of the previous 2 owners. The other V02 I know of is only down in New York and it is plum crazy with a white painted top. That car could very well have come from Massachusetts as well and moved to New York.

Black was available with V02 from the start of the model year.

Chrysler originally wanted Sam to drive a pink car but he refused. So they went with green. He wrote about it in one of his articles, or maybe his book.

AARs & T/A were available in all 18 colors in the menu at the start of the model year plus the two mid-year colors.

One 999 'special order' T/A is also known so far.

Mine does. Standard 1970 Challenger order form with the T/A specifics already filled out.

Closeup showing the two-tone line;

Question for you: are you saying all AAR/TAs were order from these order sheets? I have always understood most of these cars were built to spec by the factory and set to dealer as is here it is. Every tag or sheet I have on file, the majority of which are AAR (10-15, not a big file ) all have the Y05 code for sales bank cars, supporting what I have understood.

Stories can evolve over time and might have little to do with the truth in the end, sometimes naturally and sometimes to make someone seem to play a bigger role than in reality. It would be great if you could get confirmation from Sam cause that is an important part of history.

Y05 is build for US sale.

Y07 - Build for Canadian sale.

Y14 - 'Sold' car (ordered)

Y16 - Sales bank.

Ordered AARs & T/As are well known to me.

Some cars are Y14 & Y16 at the same time, these are cars typically ordered & paid for by a dealership for their own lot stock.

I know some were ordered but were the majority of them? Guess I got codes mixed up. So if they were ordered off of the sheet would they not carry the Y14 code? If I understand correctly many if the cars were built in batches so to speak, being virtually identical cars not likely all the forms got checked the same from different dealers but I guess only so many options so it's possible. My car is in a series of what 4 or 5 known that are pretty much the same from what is known about them and there could have even been more in the run that aren't documented yet.

Most AARs were sales bank cars from orders filled out at the factory like yours.

But some were ordered from outside the factory as well.

VINs were occasionally assigned to blocks of similar cars, but they were not built in VIN order.

And again, some cars are Y14 & Y16 at the same time, one does not exclude the other.

Gotcha on the Y codes and yes many conversations about not built in specific order, VIN assigned in order of when the order came in right? The point of my question was I was trying to verify if NortheastMopar was saying they were all ordered by the dealers from the spec sheet.

I was just saying that regarding the V02 option. And there were special order forms for dealers to use to order a T/A. I am sure Mopar sent some along that they built, but there was a dealer order sheet specific to these cars. And the AAR sheet did not have the V02 option. That is my understanding. Does anyone have a dealer order sheet for an AAR cuda to look at??

Good deal, VO2 makes for a very unique TA that's for sure.

Post the TA order form if you don't mind, I don't know that I have ever seen one.

The picture Barry posted is what I have. It says it is a sample of the 1970 Model Challenger. Does this form include AAR cars? That is what I am trying to say here? That sheet also is filled in to show a dealer which codes to put where to order a T/A. My thoughts are, if all these cars were built and shipped by the factory, then why the need to send out this kind of form to a dealer? That is what I am a little cloudy about. I have been chasing this info since I bought this car and have not yet been able to solidify these things. I am only repeating what I have found out and my story about autodynamics came right from John Harkness. If you do a search you will see he attended the autodynamics reunion a few years back and he is listed as an engine builder for their formula cars. He did not work on the T/A engine as they were done by Kieth Black on the west coast. But he did work on the 77 car suspension, which is what they did there. The person who could really know this is Sam Posey. I was thinking of trying to send him a letter because he is not listed in the phone books that I can find. But, as Barry states, these guys probably had no known knowledge of codes and reasons to add or delete a code. So he may not even know about what a V02 code is. I can only tell you what John Harkness told me. Sam looked at the sublime car and told them to get the putrid green out of his face. When they told him it was not his choice regarding the color. He said he would not drive that car and told them to send it back to the dealer and have the top painted black.. So I don't know. It is and always has been a mystery.

They were ALL built at the factory.

They would have all been shipped from the factory unless 'plant pick up' was specified at time of order.

Most orders originated at Chrysler (not at the assembly plant)for the AARs & T/As, but dealerships could order them, thus the form sample shown.

Agreed. I know they were all built at the factory, lol. But the form is for a Challenger model with the T/A on the front cover. Did Plymouth do a like form for the AAR?