Tyres still doesn't account for the fact you could get the alloys on VC SL wagons (and VH SL/X).
Early commodores were light enough not to be encroaching on any load rating, even when fully loaded with a V8 and power options.
(and bear in mind everything in the way of mod-cons in the VC SL/E wagon was available at extra cost on the VH SL/X wagon just a year later too), with the exception of the tailgate applique.

The 8VL35 coding is common knowledge, especially as the VL Calais wagon had the same 8VL35, with the option pack of A9Y stamped additionally on the plate.
Although I have read posts on that very forum in the early 2000s with people claiming to have VH wagons with 8VX35 on the tags.....

I'm still not buying that it snuck out and was stopped. Look at the wagon tailgate applique around the lock - it's an Opel part, and requires special holes to be drilled. It would have had to be engineered as no other wagon had it. The special trim done by Ashlors - as mentioned in the brochure too. And the brochure! These were well known about at many levels to have come that far along.

I still agree with Norm Darwin's musings that costs are what killed it - they under-estimated just how expensive all the unique processes and parts would be, and the cost accountants are the ones who had it tanked.

Yes, that handle is exactly the same as fitted to VK/VL, so it's easy to find. If you don't have one, I have a few spares - you can have one for the cost of postage.

There were a few others too where dealers got brand new LS with 350 and 253 auto van side by side and swapped the engines and transmissions, then registered and sold both so that the correct engine numbers ended up back in GMH records, as the cars were delivered new with engines that they didn’t leave the assembly plants with.

So have progressed any further from the single Statesman with 308 and M21?