1 of 1. The 1994 Impala SS T56 6-speed manual from the factory:
All car manufacturers build experimental "test mules" for research, development and testing. Some get exercised at press and marketing events, car and trade shows as well as advertising and occasional use in television and movies. Most of these never leave the clutches of the companies that built them and in the rare case they somehow get out into public hands, they have no title and can't be registered anyway. Some are held in museums and some in private collections. We common folks manage to hear about them second hand from some lucky employee of a billionaire who took a photo while washing the car to prove it exists to his friends at the local classic car cruise-in.
In GM's case more than a few were part of the The GM North American Heritage Collection that has had through the years between 300 and 500 vehicles of various marques, models and pedigree. Some are straight up concept cars while others were assembled from various parts like Frankenstein's Monster and abused as part of a research program but have some automotive historical significance. Instead of being crushed outright, they are put on display in Sterling Heights, MI at the Heritage Center. To make matters more confusing, they also have a Heritage Fleet and in 2009 about 200 of those close to 1,000 cars were taken to the Barrett-Jackson auction is Scottsdale, AZ as part of normal housekeeping and collection turn over. You can read Jalopnik's write up of the sale of the only factory 6-speed T56 1994 Impala SS (VIN = 1G1BN52P4RR100024) read the AutoWeek article on the auction or watch this video. A check of the VIN shows it is earlier in the known production run of 1994 Impala SS' that were between 101891 to 199759 (nonconsecutive).
