I'm curious about High Performance Motors of El Segundo Ca. I've noticed that they sold a lot of Shelby Mustangs, mine was sold new there, but it haven't seen it said that they were a full line Ford dealer. I know Ford dealers had to have the Shelby franchise in order to have new Shelby products to sell, initially anyway, then that policy changed when the cars weren't moving the way they hoped they would. As I understand Carroll Shelby was a partner in High Performance Motors. Can someone shed more light on that particular dealership?
NO - it was a dealership owned by CS and Lew Spencer. If you showed up at the factory they sent you to HiPerf to complete the sale. CA is one of those states where manufacturers were not allowed to sell cars direct to the consumer (something Tesla has challenged). They sold mainly Cobras and GT350s and a few other race cars - Alpines & Tigers (Spenser raced an Alpine).
Don't forget pre 1968 Shelby American was the manufacturer. They manufactured the GT350 so it could be competitive in SCCA at the time. SCCA would not allow the suspension changes necessary to the Mustang to make it competitive. The GT350 being "manufactured" by Shelby American was a way to get around the rule. The license to sell Shelbys was issued to Ford dealers by SA. It wasn't slow sales that caused the change it was the simple fact Shelbys drew people into the showrooms. Ford wanted to sell more and the inefficient assembly line at the airport could not keep up. Of course the main reason for the 67 shakeup was Ford assuming all assets of SA including trademarks due to an unpaid 1962 startup loan. By mid 67 Shelby was a race team operating out of a warehouse in Torrance as Shelby Racing Co. The sales slump came in 69.
Here is an earlier thread
https://www.saacforum.com/index.php?topic=10258.0
Who were the stakeholders or partners in HPM? Carroll Shelby, Lew Spencer, Peyton Cramer and two others.... Who are the two others?
Thanks for all of the info. I was always curious how they could sell Shelby's not being a Ford dealer, but now it makes sense. Were there other dealerships in other parts of the country that were not Ford franchises that Shelby American contracted to sell their vehicles?
Gene Ashton was the salesman who sold my car #589 to the original owner. Along the line somewhere someone posted a scan of his business card which was pretty cool. It would be interesting to know what became of him after HPM closed. That would have been my dream job as a car salesman....
^^^ Yeah, a cool job it would have been...right up until the time a prospective buyer is taking it "once around the block," with you hanging on for dear life in the passenger seat.
I wonder if Carroll had a rule about No Test Drives? Doesn't seem like his personality to do that, and it was nearly 60 years ago (less liability concerns, etc., back then) so I'd bet that any serious (and probably pre-qualified) buyer could try it out...a bit.
Probably mattered a lot what kind of car the guy drove to the dealership in.
Corvette = you probably get a test drive. Corvair = probably not.
Anyone know for sure what the "test drive" protocol at HPM was? (Racers and celebs were most likely exempt from the rules.)
Quote from: owenkelley on January 02, 2023, 12:30:43 PM
Thanks for all of the info. I was always curious how they could sell Shelby's not being a Ford dealer, but now it makes sense. Were there other dealerships in other parts of the country that were not Ford franchises that Shelby American contracted to sell their vehicles?
Gene Ashton was the salesman who sold my car #589 to the original owner. Along the line somewhere someone posted a scan of his business card which was pretty cool. It would be interesting to know what became of him after HPM closed. That would have been my dream job as a car salesman....
#591 sold there as well.
Quote from: silverton_ford on January 02, 2023, 11:03:33 AM
Who were the stakeholders or partners in HPM? Carroll Shelby, Lew Spencer, Peyton Cramer and two others.... Who are the two others?
I only knew Shelby & Spenser as the owners. Peyton Cramer had many titles at SA Director, General Manager, Marketing. He later owned a Lincoln-Mercury dealership.
(https://www.saac.com/forum/gallery/134-150918082803.jpeg)
Quote from: 98SVT - was 06GT on January 02, 2023, 02:13:45 PM
Quote from: silverton_ford on January 02, 2023, 11:03:33 AM
Who were the stakeholders or partners in HPM? Carroll Shelby, Lew Spencer, Peyton Cramer and two others.... Who are the two others?
I only knew Shelby & Spenser as the owners. Peyton Cramer had many titles at SA Director, General Manager, Marketing. He later owned a Lincoln-Mercury dealership.
Check out page 79 in the latest Winter 2023 Shelby American.
Quote from: 98SVT - was 06GT on January 02, 2023, 02:13:45 PM
I only knew Shelby & Spenser as the owners. Peyton Cramer had many titles at SA Director, General Manager, Marketing. He later owned a Lincoln-Mercury dealership.
When Peyton left Shelby Ford would not give him a franchise so he did Dana Chevrolet then expanded over and over again into the early 2000s with like 8 dealerships (all makes) Attempted to get a interview with him a number of times in the early 2000's but was unsuccessful. Lots of interviews have been published but the vast majority of them focused on Dana since it was such a big thing and time period
Quote from: J_Speegle on January 02, 2023, 03:48:48 PMWhen Peyton left Shelby Ford would not give him a franchise so he did Dana Chevrolet ....
He was only a partner in Dana for about 15 months. He sold out to his partner (early 68) and went back to SA. Dana did become a performance powerhouse under his guidance. He snagged SA drag racer Don McCain to run one of their 427 Camaros. He got Dick Gulstrand to be their HiPerf manager and Dick ran a Dana Z28 and won a TA race with it in 67. They also ran a CanAm car. They did a lot of cars but don't get the same following as Yenko.
Who owns 6S033 today? Probably the only GT350 sold by a Chevy dealer.
Quote from: 98SVT - was 06GT on January 02, 2023, 04:33:54 PM
Who owns 6S033 today? Probably the only GT350 sold by a Chevy dealer.
Don't know who is the current owner but Brant at VM had it a few years ago while it was being restored.
Peyton got a small handful of 66's when he left SA in anticipation of opening up a dealership all the others were returned to High Performance after doing demonstrator duty at Dana. My wife's 66 was the blue only auto he took and it was very cool when we got the receipt/invoice showing it was sold to Dana though it was a little confusing at the time until I figured out the story over the years. He took a couple of carryovers and one of each color 66
I have these photos of what (I believe to be 6S033) in my files, not sure if they weren't on forum 1, or one of the club
publications.
(photos: no credit given)
Mike
Quote from: honker on January 02, 2023, 05:23:19 PMI have these photos of what (I believe to be 6S033) in my files, not sure if they weren't on forum 1, or one of the club
Interesting he got some GT350s when he left. I wonder if it was in lieu of pay - I know CS did that later when people left they got a Series 1 since there wasn't enough $ in the kitty to buy out their contracts.
The center picture is on a Dana webpage - notes the Dana license plate frame. It says this was in the glovebox.
Quote from: J_Speegle on January 02, 2023, 05:03:41 PM
Quote from: 98SVT - was 06GT on January 02, 2023, 04:33:54 PM
Who owns 6S033 today? Probably the only GT350 sold by a Chevy dealer.
Don't know who is the current owner but Brant at VM had it a few years ago while it was being restored.
Peyton got a small handful of 66's when he left SA in anticipation of opening up a dealership all the others were returned to High Performance after doing demonstrator duty at Dana. My wife's 66 was the blue only auto he took and it was very cool when we got the receipt/invoice showing it was sold to Dana though it was a little confusing at the time until I figured out the story over the years. He took a couple of carryovers and one of each color 66
Ton of info and photos of 6S033 on Brant's blog. Scroll down to the page bottom and click on "Next Posts" to keep going...
http://blog.virginiaclassicmustang.com/search?q=6S033&max-results=20&by-date=true (http://blog.virginiaclassicmustang.com/search?q=6S033&max-results=20&by-date=true)
While Dave's link is good for finding my Blog posts about 6S033, you may catch a few more by clicking on this link where I "tagged" all of them. There are 39 total posts with lots of pictures in each post. They date back to 2010 and document the entire history and restoration of the car. As Dave mentions, be sure to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of each page as you scroll through all of the posts. Here is the link:
http://blog.virginiaclassicmustang.com/search/label/SFM6S033?max-results=20
6S033 was an employee lease car at SA. The first person to lease the car is listed as James McLean. Jim was the general manager of SA at the time. His son, Bill, actually drove the car. After his time with the car, it was leased by another SA employee who was a painter there. His name was Ron Hile. I was fortunate to speak to both Bill and Ron over the years. Supposedly, it was also leased by someone who may have been a Ford employee who was helping in the development of the '67 Shelby.
The car was then sold to a local friend of mine who visited Southern California in the summers. He was the first retail owner. The vintage photographs someone posted earlier in the thread were taken by him the first few days after he purchased the car. In those pictures, it wears the Dana Chevrolet license plate frame and the original California tags that were received for the car when it was registered by SA. That picture of the business card is mine and was in the glove box.
It's interesting to note that the car stayed at Dana for about a year before it was sold to the first retail owner.
Here is the car today. I still own it.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AL9nZEXQqNQrGkbAd5sDAoMXrysqj4LaotcxUbOaZvz8sTv8SEbUbQdL4cwEe7qkDQZ8YU91gHBRzIQaqUQVqP96l5QC3yvKg4bnApDd--J9thEIJd8wh21UaBhPvihozWA05C0b62vsj_n3jcBwmiLJqyUVFQ=w800-no?authuser=0)
There appear to be many Shelby franchised dealers that were NOT a Ford Dealerships ...
An example is the Foreign Car Center in Birmingham, Alabama
There were two separate Carroll Shelby owned dealerships.
They are believed to be owned and operated separately.
-The 1st dealership was on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles.
It opened around 1964 and closed around late 1965.
-The 2nd dealership was on North Sepulveda Blvd in El Segundo
It opened around September 1965 and closed with LAX around late August 1967
Neither Shelby dealership was a FORD dealer.
The first CS dealership, (HPM1), was named and located as follows;
Carroll Shelby & Lew Spencer's
Hi-Performance Motors, Inc
1150 South La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, 90019
(The four top people were Lew Spencer, Peyton Cramer, Al Dowd, and Tom Reese.)
The second CS dealership, (HPM2), was named and located as follows;
Carroll Shelby's
Hi-Performance Motors, Inc
901 North Sepulveda Blvd
El Segundo, CA
I discussed the details in depth with George Watters and Kieth Champine years ago.
For quick reference we called the first dealership 'HPM1' and the second 'HPM2'.
With their help, we determined the opening and closing date and there separate use.
Business cards from each dealer confirm the serparate names and addresses.
Back in 1967, FORD Dealer names did not always include the FORD name in their title.
That name addition appears to have happened at a later time.
Currently, we believe;
'HI-Performance Motors' in El Segundo ...and
'Foreign Car Center' in Alabama...
were the only two dealers NOT part of the Ford Network to sell 1967 Shelby's.
Quote from: Richstang on January 06, 2023, 09:53:26 AM
There were two separate Carroll Shelby owned dealerships.
They are believed to be owned and operated separately.
-The 1st dealership was on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles.
It opened around 1964 and closed around late 1965.
-The 2nd dealership was on North Sepulveda Blvd in El Segundo
It opened around September 1965 and closed with LAX around late August 1967
Neither Shelby dealership was a FORD dealer.
The first CS dealership, (HPM1), was named and located as follows;
Carroll Shelby & Lew Spencer's
Hi-Performance Motors, Inc
1150 South La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, 90019
(The four top people were Lew Spencer, Peyton Cramer, Al Dowd, and Tom Reese.)
The second CS dealership, (HPM2), was named and located as follows;
Carroll Shelby's
Hi-Performance Motors, Inc
901 North Sepulveda Blvd
El Segundo, CA
I discussed the details in depth with George Watters and Kieth Champine years ago.
For quick reference we called the first dealership 'HPM1' and the second 'HPM2'.
With their help, we determined the opening and closing date and there separate use.
Business cards from each dealer confirm the serparate names and addresses.
HPM1 on La Brea Ave had Lew Spencer as the General Manager.
When Carroll closed HPM1 and opened HPM2...
HPM2 had Ray Wolff as the General Manager.