Hi-Performance Motors Logo - The George Watters Story...

[SFM66H]

George Watters and I were recently discussing Hi-Performance Motors' first dealership location and he reminded me that he had taken a few photos of it in December 1979. He then mailed the date stamped photos to me and I noticed that they included views of the side and the back of the building that probably very few people here had ever seen before. The middle view below is two photographs that I stitched together to show the entire length of the building from a 45 degree angle. I then noticed (for the first time) the 'little block house' on the left side of the building. One of his photos even showed the back door of it! His story had been printed in the Shelby American some time ago, but it did not include a photo of that block house on the side or the back door on it. It would really be amazing if anyone here may have some information on what that room was actually used for when the dealership was in this building. I felt that a retelling of this amazing story would be a real treat for newer members. I've told George that in my opinion, this story is actually an important piece of modern Shelby American history!

Also (for those who don't know) credit for designing the iconic HPM logo goes to Pete Brock. It is just one of his many brilliant designs.

Kieth Champine

Here are George's words about 'The Logo':

At the time (1979) I worked in Hollywood, not too far from the first Hi-Performance Motors dealership at 1150 S. La Brea Ave. I was curious to see if the building was still here. It had been 14 years since Shelby had moved to the new HPM 2 location on Sepulveda Blvd, which was right around the corner from the LAX factory on West Imperial Highway. As I drove up to the building, I was shocked to see that the original Hi-Performance Motors logo was still attached to the front of the building! Two sections of it were missing. The building had a FOR SALE sign on it and I wrote down the telephone number. When I got back to work I called it and explained to the man that answered the phone what had been at the location years before. He said, "I own the building and I was the person that leased it to Carroll Shelby." He said that he knew all about Shelby and his cars. He told me that he was probably going to tear the building down. I asked about the logo on the front of the building and he said he remembered when it went up. I asked if I could buy it for a couple hundred dollars and he said I could, as long as I took it down. I sent him a check. 
 
The following Sunday, early in the morning, I drove my '65 GT 350 #467 down and took a few pictures of the car under the logo. A couple of friends drove their pickup truck with some tools and a ladder and helped out. We backed the truck under the logo and put the ladder up. Unfortunately the logo was almost flush against the building and we could not get our tools in back of it. I got up on the roof of the building and leaned over but still could not get any of the logo off. The only thing left to do was to break it up into pieces. It was made out of a hard plastic so I took a hammer and broke it apart figuring that when I got home I could put back together like a puzzle, then glue it and make a backing to attach it to. When I got home, I spread it out and all of the pieces were there and did fit together. I figured that sometime in the future I would work on it. That sometime in the future never came. I put all of the pieces in one of the many large walk-in cabinets in my garage and forgot about it. 
 
It has now been 41 years since the original story appeared in the Shelby American, and over time I have been asked more than once about the sign, so I guess I should finish the story. Unfortunately, it does not have a good ending. Over the years it was never moved from its original location in the walk-in cabinet and things got put in front of it so nobody would have even known the pieces were there. Years later I moved and I was not the one that did the final walk thru in the garage cabinets to make sure that nothing was left behind. Unfortunately it was still there somewhere and whoever found it would have never known of its importance. I'm sure they figured it was just junk!
 


Note the two different colors of the logo still clearly visible on the building in George's photo, and as seen in this famous original ad for the first dealership:



In this small gray ad below, I added that light greenish color to the upper right of the logo. It was originally a black & white magazine ad, but I think it's so cool because it looks like a white contrail behind that 'rocket like' logo:

[propayne]

Thanks for posting - I love Pete Brock's design work.

I wonder what the process was like back then? That's a pretty "out there" logo. Seems to me the Shelby gave Brock a lot of creative leeway.

- Phillip

[silverton_ford]

Great!!  Thank you for posting!  I miss the George Watters posts from the first forum.  A lot of great information was lost. 

[98SVT - was 06GT]

Gone replaced https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0544343,-118.3435297,3a,49.1y,118.62h,83.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgmdIDwaB2NfjHIxNZiZxng!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1150+N+La+Brea+Ave,+West+Hollywood,+CA+90038/@34.0543215,-118.3430407,79m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c2bf285bb3452b:0x1001ed32a7710d63!8m2!3d34.0923907!4d-118.3437094?hl=en

[DennyD]

What a fantastic post! I love the history lesson this story provides. Too bad George wasn't able to remove the sign in one piece, so sad how it ended. Just amazing that the original sign still existed on the building after all those years. Thanks for keeping history alive for us.

[SFM6S087]

Spectacular! Great story from a really nice guy – George Watters. And, as always, KOP worked wonders in the way the photos are stitched and marked for easy viewing. Thanks to both!

I don't wish to sidetrack this, but doesn't George have a story involving the food truck at Shelby American? Maybe another topic could be created for that.

Steve

[FL SAAC]

Great story and thanks for sharing

[Chad]

This was cool, thanks

[BGlover67]

Great job Keith!

[SFM66H]

George also points out another salient observation about the two HPM dealerships.

HPM 1 on La Brea Ave. was named "Carroll Shelby & Lew Spencer's Hi-Performance Motors, Inc." but HPM 2 on Sepulveda Blvd. was named only "Carroll Shelby's Hi-Performance Motors, Inc."

That's an easy detail to gloss over, but it's an important and interesting one, I think. Before I met George, what I knew about these dealerships wouldn't fill a thimble. Learning so much about them from him has been one of the most rewarding aspects in my quest for all things in Shelby American history!

[Vernon Estes]

Another great story from George!

Speaking of HPM stuff...I purchased the estate of Ray Wolff recently who was the General Manager of HPM. Here are a few neat little HPM pieces!

[Vernon Estes]

[Vernon Estes]

As many know, HPM was also a big retailer of Tigers...i had never seen this license plate before..

[SFM66H]

I don't wish to sidetrack this, but doesn't George have a story involving the food truck at Shelby American? Maybe another topic could be created for that.

Steve

Oh boy Steve, that IS another cool story, isn't it? And the circumstances that brought it about is another epic tale of serendipity.

George and I would never want to bore members with stories they may have heard before, but as the years pass and newer members come aboard (and Forums crash ) we also would not want to let those things pass into forgotten history either.

I shall approach George about it, and Thanks for the suggestion!

Kieth

[honker]

HPM ad for the Tiger from a Riverside program '64.

Mike