Our online Registry was established in January of 2011. We have been accepting registrations and Team Membership since that time. For the past seven years we have always had new cars added. Periodically we like to take a closer look at the Registry to see how many cars are registered. On June 20th of this year I went through and calculated how many of the Talladegas are left based on the Registry. Obviously. not all cars that are still around are registered. However, every year there are fewer and fewer new cars registered and more changes of ownership. As time permits I will be doing these same calculations with the Spoiler and Spoiler II cars as well.
How many were built?
To start off, lets take a look at what the records currently show as total number of Talladegas built. It all started with Prototypes of which we have VINs for seven (7), two (2) of which were documented as being crash tested and destroyed. We know of three (3) Prototypes that still exist.
After the Prototypes came a total of five (5) Pilot cars. These are the cars built on the assembly line as a test to see if the regular production cars could actually be built on the assembly line. Some of these actually made it out to the public and we know of only one Pilot car in existence.
In addition, there were two (2) Specials built. One was the Bill France Signature car and the other the Bunkie Knudsen car. Both of these cars still exist.
As for regular production Talladegas, based on the information we have, there were 736 built. That puts total production, including Prototypes, Pilots and Specials at 752.
Based on cars registered in our Registry here is what is left by condition and color. With condition #1 being a top flight show car and #6 being a parts car.
Production Talladega Registered = 125
Registered by Color:
White = 40
Blue = 36
Maroon = 49
Total Production Talladega Confirmed but NOT Registered = 28
Confirmed by Color:
White = 9
Blue = 11
Maroon = 8
Total by Color (Registered and Confirmed)
White = 49
Blue = 47
Maroon = 57
Total: 153
Talladega Registration by Condition (Confirmed cars can not be documented to condition)
#1 = 4
#2 = 32
#3 = 34
#4 = 21
#5 = 31
#6 = 3
Total = 125
Destroyed (Information supplied by Team Members)
2 Maroon cars; 1 White car and 1 Blue car for a total of only 4 cars as documented as destroyed, crushed etc.
Help
As informative as this information is it does not mean much if we don’t keep it up to date. If you have restored your car since registering it seven years ago, please send me an update on its condition and a new photo. If you have sold your car send in the new owner’s name and email. Encourage them to join and submit a new Registration. We have several cars with current and previous owner registrations. This can prove very helpful in retrieving lost information and more details about the car’s history.
If you have any suggestions or additional information please send it to me at rfleener@comcast.net.
I will also be adding a link from the Registration page on this site to this post as well as the future ones for the Mercury cars. This will make it easier for anyone to retrieve the data when they want it.
