Jeff99

(styling studio was the most important and well funded department and the guys that ran it had a lot of say. Whatever it took to convert this car to civilian life was just done and it was the tiniest rounding error on the balance sheet for the company. You are correct in that it was likely a fair amount of work by our standards, but they were fully equipped and staffed, so for them it wasn't that tough. It truly must have been a fantastic time to have worked there.)

still is that way. And still is a great place to work. I work in the paint shop in the design studio. We still do customs, prototypes, one offs. Movie cars .. not all get shown to public but it is still being done

Koda

Considering the legal pain in the butt to make a concept car a road legal vehicle, I am going to say that that probably didn't happen, and the OP is mistaken.

Jeff99

I’m not mistaken. I work here at the tech center and know first hand these cars are driven on the road and plated

Jeff99

read this article. I’m not full of it.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...t-concept-car/

Allan R

I'd be a buyer if it came with those 3 lovelies. Talk about a nice tri pac!!

Daiv8or

What pain in the butt? Custom built cars get titled and registered all the time now. It's not hard and it was even easier back in the '60s.

Koda

The pain in the butt that an oem, as opposed to you, the consumer, faces. Let's say Toyota makes a concept car, then they want to put it on the road and eventually sell the thing. To legally sell that car as an oem to an individual it would have to meet all fed regulations, like emissions, crash tests, and so on. You'd have to make about ten cars for various federal testing to be allowed to sell that one car to an individual because it is a production vehicle, just like the ones off the lines.

I should have refined my statement and said "sold". Perhaps GM had figured out how they can VIN a vehicle as experimental and never sell it, and perhaps that is legal. I would not know, as my company tends to destroy trial vehicles, and never vin concept cars. As such, that privately held Starfire is either illegal AF, or a non-factory custom.

Jeff99

Quote from article at the bottom. ...

so, in early 2009, General Motors took hundreds of concept cars, preproduction vehicles, race cars, SEMA show cars, test mules and all sorts of other things to the Barrett-Jackson auctions in Arizona for a huge sell-off.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/content...totypes-261845

Koda

Maybe things are different for Government Motors, but your link is broken. Since you've done nothing but argue the majority of the posts on your recently made account, I am going to concede the point so I don't have to talk to you any more.

Jeff99

Your getting mad because your wrong! All car company can do this, look the facts up , do a google search , ask another buddy smarter than you , I’m not just here throwing bull around, not the guy I am.. I started this thread to get history on a car, you uniformed person has blown it into something else saying something can’t be done because you don’t know what your talking about !!!

BangScreech4-4-2

Well, I'll talk to you then. The link worked for me.

Those aren't exactly radical customs -- per the accompanying text, most have at best a few bolt-on modifications or trim changes and differ little from production models. I'm sure they all have standard VIN and could be registered as easily as if they'd been bought through a dealer. Try doing that with a custom-bodied one-off like a Mako Shark or a Chrysler turbine car.

Koda

"You're" is the contraction form of "you are", not "your," which is a possessive. I know my car company can't do what you are purporting GM did, and I deal with a lot of the regulatory items so I should know. Your writing style doesn't really match up with someone with formal education, so I have to wonder what you actually do at the tech center.

Olds64

I'm going to close this thread now. Thanks to everyone that shared pics.