Great comments, Joe! From what I've observed, it seems that Chrysler was a little unique in their "special handling" vehicles. From what I understand, even up into the 1980s, if the car was being order by a Chrysler exec or a dignitary related to Chrylser products, they put their name on the windshield with the intention that everyone would make it just a little better than they might otherwise do. I understand that a Dodge off-road racer ordered up a rear wheel drive New Yorker Fifth Avenue in the 1985 time frame. It was basically a police car in Chrysler clothing, but the Eagle GT tires looked a little out of place with the wire wheel covers.
There was a story about some special engines that Chrysler had done up in the engine plant for delivery to a special group of vehicles on the assembly line. These 413s (I believe) were treated to a closer tolerance assembly in order to make them as smooth as possible when they ran. When the designated individual appeared to pick them up (in shipping crates), he discovered that they had ben mistakenly sent out to the regular assembly plant as regular engines. Whoops!
The intent was to send these engines out for installation in a particular group of cars whose service and customer history would be followed by Chrysler. With the engines going somewhere else, there were some unsuspecting customers that got the smoothest running and best performing Chrysler V-8s of that period of time. Seems like that article was in the WPC Club magazine a few years ago.
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