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How Many Cars in the Registry?
We all know how rare the Ford and Mercury Aero Cars are and it is a constant battle trying to find all the VINs for the Spoiler/Spoiler II cars. This Registry attempts to locate and register as many of the cars as possible. This includes show cars too junked and crushed cars. Although we have all the VINs for the Talladegas that does not tell us how many are still out there on the road or waiting to be restored.
As of the first of April 2015 here are how many of each car have actually been found and registered with our Registry.
- 1969 Ford Talladega = 111
- 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II = 51
- 1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler = 36
- 1969 Mercury Color Code/Pre-Spoiler = 9
- 1968 Mercury Cyclone GT 500 = 4
- 1969 Ford Petty Torino = 2
Total in Registry = 213
The next time someone tells you their car is rare toss out some of these numbers. I am sure there are still “living” Ford Aero cars out there. We still get new registrations but the numbers have dropped way off recently. Even if the Registry only has half of all cars still out there, that is not very many. I use the estimate of 20% survival rate on old muscle cars. That means there should be 150 Talladegas, 100 Spoiler IIs and nearly 200 Spoilers. Where are they? Keep your eyes open. If you find one get the VIN and make sure we have it in the Registry as a car that is still in existence.
Richard,
Do the numbers listed above reflect registered cars, or known surviving cars, in each category?
Thanks,
Carl.
Carl, For the most part these numbers represent Registered cars on our site. However, a very few cars that have been found and verified, such as found at shows or on eBay and VIN confirmed, are included in the count. For Talladegas we have listed all of the VINs for these cars but only the Registered cars are included in our count. For the other cars we have listed VINs that we know are correct but only counted the ones that are Registered or confirmed. We still have cars being registered on a monthly basis although it has slowed considerably.
Thanks. I knew that we had several cars listed in the Registry that are known to be “non-survivors” as they are identified in the registration as having been crushed at some point in the past, as well as a number of cars for which the current disposition is unknown as a “formerly owned” car by a Registry member. I don’t know the number of cars that fall into each of those two categories; but, by doing a brief search in the registry, it doesn’t take very long to find samples of each.
Information is updated as it is provided. There is information on some cars that previous owners have provided but current condition and location may be unknown. Likewise other cars that are registered may have been restored or totaled since they were registered. Several have been sold and not updated by the new owner. When ever we do get an update the previous Registrations are retained and linked to the most recent. In this way we can track the history of these cars in the future. I really encourage everyone to check the VIN of every Registry eligible car you see and check it against the current listing. If it isn’t there send the info to us to add to our list. We recently had one reader send us a stack of Marti Reports he has been collecting for eBay over the years. It was a great help and added several Spoiler and Spoiler II cars to the VIN list we did not previously have.