I have always wondered about that 'option' business. I seem to recall that only a very limited number of the overdrive equipped hardtop and convertible cars were produced, and that this had more to do with getting the tunnel modification and related bits sorted to accept the larger Hydramatic transmission. One explanation I was given one time at a National was that the body shells were already made up but as soon as the modifications were ready, all subsequent bodies were made up for Hydramatics and so equipped, as it was expected that these premium priced models would have all the bells and whistles possible including automatics. It would certainly explain the "oddity" of overdrive when compared to serial and body numbers, and why there might be such discrepancy for the item between the two. Once the early bodies were used up, no more overdrive. Except, it appears, that ALL bodies that they intended to build WERE used up, with the automatic-ready bodies exhausted first and so the highest recorded number, which also just happened to have overdrive and a low body number, might have been the very last body available and the position of someone ordering retail or wholesale would have been to be told--"there is just N left, and if you want one, it will have to be overdrive, not automatic. That's it, that's all"
