Through the VIN Project, we have developed a nice relationship with Kevin Marti, of Marti Auto Works. The picture files we have collected for the project have helped Kevin learn about how certain cars were coded, and his Marti Reports and Eminger Invoices have been a HUGE resource for our efforts. Kevin has been great to work with!
Not only have we been getting Marti Reports on SSPs, but also "cars of interest" like the 1982 CHP hatchbacks. Several months ago, Kevin provided us a Deluxe Marti Report on 224464, which is the only known surviving CHP hatchback.
Recently, I had Kevin run reports on 224461, 224462, and 224463. The reports for all three cars had information that was in conflict with the Deluxe Report he ran earlier on 224464. I questioned Kevin about it, and he dug deeper. I requested that he look for an Eminger Invoice on one of the four cars, and he found one for 224463.
This original Ford document confirms that the four CHP hatchbacks were equipped with the SSP option!
Here are the four newly added pages to our VIN Project -
224461
224462
224463
224464
How amazing is that? We now have definitive proof that the four CHP hatchbacks in 1982 were SSPs, which are in addition to an
unknown quantity of 1982 SSP notchbacks.
You may wonder why I worded the previous sentence that way. Well, I had requested that Kevin run reports on the "1st" and "400th" cars in the consecutive VIN batch from 1982. The first car (1FABP10F6CF213038) came back as expected. However, Kevin was not able to run a report on the 400th car (1FABP10F9CF213437) because the order was cancelled! In turns out that according to the Marti-owned Ford paperwork, the last six cars in that batch of 400 were cancelled.
In support of the idea that some of the 1982 SSP coupes were never built, look at the unit number shown on the above hatchback - E870600. Now look at the CHP paperwork provided by Mustang Kid's dad saying that the 1982 coupes had Unit Numbers E870201 - E870600:
It appears that a coupe's unit number was used on a SSP hatchback. Interesting! I wonder if the six coupes were cancelled because the CHP ordered the four hatchbacks (whose VINs are after the coupes)?
At this point, I think we can say with 100% certainty that we cannot determine exactly how many 1982 SSP Mustangs (coupes and the four confirmed hatchbacks) were built by Ford. I guess we need to update our SSP History page to include the new information.
