Rare factory options thread

  • Thread starter Heldenzeit
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That light up panel! Mega cool.
 
While we're on the subject of Japanese market oddities...

Here we can see black fender flares not available in any other market for the T/A:
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And swiveling square style mirrors on a Camaro:
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(It also seems they still kept the Sport Coupe designation in Japan for whatever reason.)

Here's a little bonus:
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A Hurst Dual Gate shifter specifically designed for 3rd Gen F-Bodies. They were offered at dealers, but few opted to install it over the normal shifter, making them quite rare and valuable. In fact, my father in law had to get his shipped from Canada because no one was selling them in the US.
 
Peter Brock's "Energy Polariser" in his HDT Commodores that caused the falling out between him and Holden.

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The "Motocompo," a minibike that fit into the back of your Honda City:

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The VL SV88 Commodore also had an optional fax machine:

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Ford Falcon Overniter and Surferoo:

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And Mazda's TQX 5-speed manual with a fluid coupling (similar to a torque converter) as fitted on RX-cars in the 70s:

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The "GT" package for the GMC Sonoma.
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It was essentially a regular single cab, 2wd Sonoma equipped with a Syclone appearance kit for the exterior and interior. The 4.3L V6 got a minor power boost to 195, and about 800 were made in 1992. Interestingly, these were put together by Performance Auto Services (PAS), who were the ones who made the 1989 Turbo Trans Ams.
 
Vauxhall / Opel Flex-Fix integrated bike rack which is an option on most cars in the range.

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It's a good idea but I have never seen a car with this option fitted (you can tell because of the rectangle in the bumper). Has literally no one picked this option? :lol: Maybe it's more popular on the continent.
 
Vauxhall / Opel Flex-Fix integrated bike rack which is an option on most cars in the range.

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It's a good idea but I have never seen a car with this option fitted (you can tell because of the rectangle in the bumper). Has literally no one picked this option? :lol: Maybe it's more popular on the continent.
That looks like it adds quite a bit of weight to the car.
 
The "GT" package for the GMC Sonoma.
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It was essentially a regular single cab, 2wd Sonoma equipped with a Syclone appearance kit for the exterior and interior. The 4.3L V6 got a minor power boost to 195, and about 800 were made in 1992. Interestingly, these were put together by Performance Auto Services (PAS), who were the ones who made the 1989 Turbo Trans Ams.

GM was pretty prescient with people wanting most of the show but none of the go, since any Sonomoa/S10 of that vintage I see nowadays that hasn't been run into the ground has been made up to look like a Syclone anyway.
 
While we're on the subject of Japanese market oddities...
And swiveling square style mirrors on a Camaro:
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(It also seems they still kept the Sport Coupe designation in Japan for whatever reason.)

The square mirrors were options on the Firebird/Trans Am (as seen in the picture with the flares), and were meant to be used for other countries where foldaway-style mirrors were needed for safety purposes (people in the US presumably bought them cause they were smaller and of course folded away).

Here's my submission, the 70's Blazer Chalet which featured a factory installed camper body in place of the standard steel roof.
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Another rare option was the Sizzler package for the 1971 Dodge Demon.

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This is the imfamous "Hemi Sizzler," which I believe is based on a prototype version found in advertisments for the Sizzler.

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(Not entirely sure about that last statement though)
 
Outside of Europe most definitely, but aside from the colour I'd imagine that they made quite a few of the taxi spec W124s for, you know, taxi purposes.
Fair point. I completely forgot about that.
 
Alfa 4C coupe
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Factory optional bug eye headlights from Alfa Spider
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If someone bought the Spider, they couldn't option the coupe's covered lenses.
 
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