Another pillarless hardtop question

[A Horse With No Name]

What year was the Last Bel Air 2 door hardtop made by Chevrolet?

Hint-they built 14 SS ragtops for every one of these they built this year.

Chris

[Sixty8panther]

Wild stab in the dark... 1968?

[XP715]

I'll guess 1965

[balthazar]

Wild guess: 1972

EDIT: Officially shocked by the answer...

Edited May 20, 2007 by balthazar

[Oracle of Delphi]

1975 for the USA, Canada had them until 1980 I do believe.

[A Horse With No Name]

The answer is 1962...key to the question is Bel Air 2 door hardtop, others were Biscayne or Impala line automobiles.

The 62 was a "Bubble top" design similar to 1961. It was one of the lightest bodies out that year and set quite a few records at drag strips and on stock car tracks.

A cool car, but kinda sad in a way...used to be an awesome (red) pro street 62 Bel Air buble top running around here that was a factory 409 car that the guy made into a pro street car. He did an awesome job but it seems a shame to "cut up" such a rare, rare car.

The other car that was cool was a white on red car that the owner converted from a 327 powerglide car into a 409 clone. It used to run around (still runs around?) the Cleveland-Medina area. Teh guiy that owned that car raced one like it back in 62-he had lots of cool photos of the early days of drag racing. It was awesome meeting the guy and getting to know him.

Chris

[ocnblu]

Yeah, once Impala came on the scene, Bel Air lost its top of the line status, and usually only top-line models were available in hardtop form. Still, the answer is a surprise.

[balthazar]

Clarification: >>"...usually only top-line models from Chevrolet were available in hardtop form. "<<

Not the case for Buick or Olds or Pontiac. Which is how I missed this one by so much (not a big Chevy fan).