[jeffschevelle]

I don't think anyone really knows the "why" for the lack of a posi. The strike theory is often bantered around, but if it was a strike at the "axle plant" as some say, then there would have been no axles available at all. For posi's to be unavailable but std. axles to still be rolling out the door, it more likely would have been a strike at the Eaton plant where the posi units were built, not a strike at any of the 4 axle plants building Chevelle axles.

On the other question above (which I missed) about availability of heater delete on a Z16, I have never seen or heard of one without a heater. Given all the other comfort options included on the cars, I seriously doubt any were built without heaters, even if it technically may have been "available". None of the cars were dealer ordered in the typical way; they were all spec'd out by the Chevrolet management folks running that program. Dealers could request cars, but if they got one they would just get one that had already been spec'd out by the brass.

One of the very first cars was delivered to Huffman Chevrolet for the express purpose of drag racing, but it had all the mandatory Z16 options, and it had a heater. Jerry Huffman (son of the dealer) stripped all the goodies off. Many of them were put on a regular Malibu SS on the lot, and added to the window sticker, to recoup some of the high cost of the Z16. So somewhere there is a regular SS (seems like I remember him saying a white car) with lots of Z16 parts on it!