Galen Govier

[Ghoste]

I'm with you Tan Top.  This is a hobby and its supposed to be fun.

[Lord Warlock]

No offense taken TT,  like many enthusiasts here willing to decode an option tag or build sheet for others, I posted every option available to a 1969 charger back in the mid 90s at the beginning of the internet,  on my first web page.  I took the data from the mopar Red book as well as other sources I had accumulated at the time,  Its still out there in never never land of the internet, if you find the page it will have angelfire links attached to it which I avoid today.  But it was an attempt to help others before there was many other sources doing so.
I don't expect to be paid for it, but I also don't have the knowledge to decipher production numbers, how many of how many, and uber rarity.  I can help with the mundane but the specialty stuff I leave to the experts.  GG was known to me as one of those people back when I set up my first web pages.  

If I could figure out how to get paid to do it, I would learn, but it would take years to build a reputation, and GG has been known to fly out to a location and verify it at the source...for a price...  something I'd prefer not to do as I avoid air travel if given a choice.  As early as the late 70s I was performing locating services for specific types of muscle cars, i.e. finding specific models for specific buyers, usually low mileage originals,  but i did it for free because they were usually friends of my dad or detroit execs, I just never figured out how to make a living at it back then, even though I knew a ton about most of the musclecars of the era.  

Like GG, I had no time or interest in non big blocks with the exception of a few 340 or 350 powered cars, that were specialty type cars (Like  AAR and TA cars).  In the 80s and 90s the cars hadn't gotten so scarce that people gave a hoot about 318 powered chargers, they were simply parts cars for the RT's and Hemi cars being restored.  Today, they have reached a point where they are worth more than 10k, something i didn't envision back then.

[A12 Superbee]

I read on a forum somewhere, may have been B Bodies or the Lift Off Hood playground, that many years ago, I think the early 80's, that Chrysler used to let pretty much anyone into their central records area to research cars. These people could come and go as they pleased. One of the first to be regularly doing this was GG. It is 'alleged' that certain researchers made off with a lot of information on the high end and rarer cars and adfter a few years Chrysler noticed that there were significant holes in the available data for the years 68-70 (lets face it, the best and most desirable years).

Who pops up all of a sudden and starts providing information on these very years? Yep, GG. Some have pointed the finger of blame squarely at him for having the missing data. It would make good business sense to drip feed it out and that's exactly whats happened.

I don't believe there ever was a fire (some have said it was a flood also) that destroyed these records because there is no record of the fire and Chrysler themselves have gone to great lengths to track down the missing info, something they would not have done if they knew it was all lost in a fire. They hoped it was all stored in an archive somewhere, some shipping container or pile of boxes in a dusty back room but so far, no luck.

Someone has the data.....

(the comments in this post are my opinion only and do not represent the opinion of this forum)  

[Ghoste]

Thats certainly possible but I will add that he solicited a lot of information from others with similar interests back in the MMCI days.

[Lord Warlock]

I'm pretty sure you could use a copy machine or a microfiche machine to make copies, like any library offered at the time.  I would think any real researcher thats worth his salt would make copies of as much data as he could get access to, so he wouldn't have to make another trip, I know I would.  I do remember going through years of magazines to get performance data on a 69 440 charger r/t with a 3.23 gears soon after i bought mine in 78. 

[hemi-hampton]

The Chrysler fire is the story they have put out the past 10 + years or so. Before Chrysler made up that story, I always heard way back in the 90's they just threw it all away in the dumpster when they moved out of Highland Park. After being told years later how stupid it was to throw this documentation/paper work out they came up with the fire cover story to not look stupid, seems it worked as most beleive it. Back in the 80's nobody had any big interest in this stuff like they do now. LEON.

[Ghoste]

Thats what I think too.  The fire didn't occur until the stuff got to the Detroit incinerator facility. (so it wasn't a lie exactly)