Yeah, I don't know about the congressman, but there couldn't be many people that ordered their Monza before me. I literally ordered it like the 3rd week of September 1974. There wasn't even one in the showroom yet and I had never seen or driven one in person. I based everything on magazine articles that were very prolific at the time with the Monza introduction. So, I figured it had basically what I was looking for, small car, light weight, V8, 4 speed, posi rear etc so that's what I ordered. I ordered it pretty much as soon as salesmen could place orders. Their are some earlier cars (based on their VIN's) but that's pretty much because of the delay getting the V8 car produced so I would assume most are 4cylinder cars. In all honesty it's pretty amazing how close I came to not owning one because of the delay, I was as patient as a 19 year old kid could be I guess. I don't think I would have considered it with the rotary engine, had to have a V8 and I knew all along someday I'd put a 350 in there to replace the 262. The 262 stayed in there until 1984. Only had 40,000 miles on it when I pulled it and it was in perfect shape, but you know how it is.
I had a girl friend who eventually bought a new Mirage, it was nice because it had the 305V8 and larger brakes etc. It wasn't really my taste with the bolt on panels and graphics but she certainly liked it. Not sure how long she had it as we went separate ways shortly after that.