Yep, as I already posted waayyy back on page two, for '72/'73, the 3.00 gear was a $11.66 option over the 2.79. Except for 250, with air 3.00 was std. Of course availability likely changed year to year.
Back in the mid 70's a friend was buying a new car and told the salesman that he like the wheels on another car in the lot better than the wheels on the car he was going to buy. The salesman had the service dept to swap wheels to make the deal happen.
It does not seem like there was any rationale for which cars, got which gears. If they were out of 3.00's maybe they used 2.79's or vise versa.
Not likely, there was such a thing as maintaining inventory. Using one for other would screw up later builds. If any part specified was out of stock, 99.9% build was scrubbed until available(one reason build dates on Marti reports can be weeks to months later than orig scheduled). For parts on major delay or discontinued, dealer would be notified. This isn't to say there wasn't a occasional goof up, there's a documented Red Maverick with Blue interior.
