By: Patrick Smith
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The stereo cassette player option was short lived at GM in 1971. Note the tape
went on top of machine with heads up. |
When the 1972 LeMans and GTO appeared for sale, a couple of new options appeared in the ads which lured buyers. When it came to ordering some of them however, they discovered the part was made of unobtanium. That's right, some pieces like the duck tail spoiler was discontinued the first week of production. Others, like this beauty here, the stereo cassette player console, was dropped later on. A few cars got this player, but we're talking very few! Most orders were for the 8 track players.
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| Cassette door is on top and load heads down. |
RPO U55:
Offered as RPO U55 or sales order code 414, the stereo cassette player was based on the Phillips Corporation version of tape and was primarily used for recording dictation notes in offices for typing later. In the 60s, the opinion of cassette tape material was that it was inferior to the wider 4, 8 track and reel to reel recording tape medium. The idea was more surface area meant better sound quality. That was true, but changes and progress in developing the cassette medium improved the sound enough to make commercial recordings of cassette albums viable. Columbia Record Club got behind the medium by 1969 and by the early 1970s you started seeing cassettes of LPs out there with 8 tracks and reel to reel versions. They weren't very common, about as unusual as a CD release for the early 1980s era, but they did exist and it was growing fast. Being able to play a whole album side without interruption was a big plus for audio fans.
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Heat sink and two capacitors out back reveals this unit was packing
an amplifier. |
So how come the stereo cassette player option vanished? That part if still a mystery. If I find out, you'll read about it here. For now, let's concentrate on the few that were made and what they are like. According to Pontiac Division's 1972 RPO Production List, only 343 cars from 1971 got these babies and none for 1972. However, the 1972 Grand Prix and Firebird models got 177 and 71 units respectively before it was dropped. I suspect that the few cars we're going to encounter with a cassette player are going to be additions from an over the counter unit or earlier B body car from 1971. It appears to have been deleted very early in production. 71 units, by the way, translates to 0.01 percent on the Grand Prix. So if say, 20 A bodies got a cassette player, it may show up as zero percent. Zero percent doesn't necessarily mean zero units!
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| Another unit with the factory knobs present. |
Appearance and Part Numbers: The unit is an integral black box construction with front loading cassette mechanism on top with heads down (facing you)orientation. There is a six row heat sink behind and a harmonica connector out back for the radio and speaker connections. The controls are on the front and have two chrome and satin finish knobs, one on each end. The unit was manufactured by Delco Electronics in Kokomo, Indiana. The part number is 7937400. The Ac Delco radio product code is 1OBCT12 which broken down translated to 1971, O which isn't used by Delco to describe any GM division, B= full size B body cars, CT= cassette, integral and 12 which should mean twelfth revision
but would be impossible given the brutally short production life of this component.In fact, between 2, 337 units, the revision code didn't change.More likely it refers to 12 maximum playable tracks, 6 per side. The O for division code likely referred to all car lines. Notice for instance, on the bottom of the unit shown here, a Red ink stamp "P" for Pontiac? Examining the Pontiac salesmen book reveals that option RPO U55 was available on all Pontiac models provided certain conditions were met. The conditions were; car must have automatic transmission. It wasn't available with manual transmission as the salesman's written note adds that a console must be ordered when installing the cassette player on a "finished car" with manual transmission.
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The paper product label with part number and Ac Delco breakdown. Notice the red ink stamp P
for Pontiac? This cassette player was likely offered across all B body models before it was dropped. |
Rarity, value: This is scarce, along the lines of a Bigfoot or Yeti sighting for an A body car. Is it valuable? That depends on how badly you want it. Since it didn't appear as an available option for ninety nine percent of 1972 GTO or LeMans cars, it won't appeal to a restorer. A B body fan will definitely want it however. Auction prices are scarce but I have seen units for sale in the $500 range. That doesn't guarantee you a playable one! As for quantity, we know from serial numbers that at least 2,337 were made before production ceased. Not common but not super rare either.Search those Bonnevilles and Catalinas.
* Article (c) 2018 by Patrick Smith PHS 1972 Y Code Registry
