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In the past you could shop on the internet at Ford dealers and save 35% from the price a selling dealer wants. I showed my dealer the price and he matched it.
The irony is that my 2011 Taurus never had a failure--now has 206,000 on it.

Thanks Bob- Nice layouts on the two tracks - brings back lots of memories.
Cars were trailered to the Romeo(MPG) track to allow the track driver to return home. A typical trip there would be to run a car on General or Rough Road Durability after it was prepared at the Experimental garage.
APG (Arizona Proving Ground) was used for engine cooling work, salt bath corrosion, truck and vehicle testing when the weather was poor in Dearborn. Of interest to Mustang performance buffs, Engine Division did drag testing on the first Cobra Jet Engine there recoding times of 13.2 secs. This was a blue printed engine and that time was unheard of from a production vehicle. This allowed work on signing off the engine to proceed.
Bob - Perhaps you could share more details on the Brass Tags as I believe you have accumulated quite a bit of info on them.

Brass tag cars were different to the best of my knowledge. They were cars assigned to Ford executives for the most part. I am aware of some brass tag Shelbys.

This video is from the test track in Dearborn. These were very early Shelbys. The red fastback, 9S02S100026, is a pre-Shelby production car. The convertible is Shelby car number 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fzTpCEP82M
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I would like to comment on these statements-
Brass tags were added to all prototypes at Ford. They were used to track costs and workloads by year, carline and body style for the numerous programs.  Yes, executive cars got them also.
I am quite sure the video you provided was at the Michigan Proving Grounds in Romeo Mi. not the smaller Dearborn Track. There were no trees beside the track in Dearborn. I worked at the Dearborn track for over 36 years. My 1968 Mustang did development work at the Dearborn track.
The 4,000 acre Romeo Track opened in 1957 and contained a high-speed test track, numerous roads of various surfaces and topographies, a hill climb track, and a salt bath -- along with offices, garages and support structures.

I believe the best video on this topic is-
https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1805-get-it-right-ford-engine-paint/
He covers all types of paint and color samples. Take your time on deciding. I have read that the aerosol paint will not set until you run the engine to normal temps. 

I see your point. Did the dealer install the sand cast covers?

In looking at pictures of engines at the Cleveland Engine Plant in 1965, there are two engines that are described as Hipo. On each engine is a large sticker on the valve cover with the letters DSO.
I have researched this sticker and it stands for Domestic Special Order. It is applied to special engines only to assure the vehicle assembly plant use them in special cars. My 1968 428 Cobra Jet is of the 135 series and had a 50 car build. It had the large yellow sticker on the left valve cover that the dealer did not remove.
Is it possible that owners of some Hipo Shelbies could display that sticker validly? It garners attention on my CJ show car. The sticker is available from a parts house in Australia -possibly from other locations. Is this of interest?