When did OTT LeMans stripes become a thing?

[2112]

My first Exposure to a '67 was in the mid 70's.  I can't honestly remember now if it had LeMans stripes or not. I was about 11 years old at the time.

For the guys who have been at this since the early days, do you recall when the owner applied over the top LeMans stripes started to be the thing to do? Was it from the late 60's? Or did it really get started in the 70's or 80's?

I do remember the first time I heard the phrase "Dealer Installed 427" was around 1981 or 1982.   

[557]

Well my 67 had lemans stripes when I bought it in 82.My buddy bought a 67 a few months later and it also had lemans stripes.Both cars had been painted non original colors as well.The 3 or 4 other 67s I looked at before I bought mine all didn't have lemans stripes.Old convention photos might be another good source of info.I remember at the 84 convention in Anaheim it was a "mixed bag"of striped/unstriped cars.

[honker]

Here's a pic (sorry 'bout the quality, enlarging loses too much resolution, the car was in the back ground of another photo) that I

had posted here earlier in the thread, "Period Pictures, Historical Perspective" post #36, April 26th. 2020.           .

The photo was dated July 30th. '67, and is at Le Circuit Mt. Tremblant (St. Jovite, Quebec Canada)

I took photos around the same time, July, August 1967,  of '67 Shelby Mustangs on the lot  at Sud Automobile, on the south shore

of Montreal and  don't recall seeing any cars with stripes.

Mike

PS: just to be clear, this is a day2 car, after studying the registry this could be  #2105  ? ?

[67 GT350]

A car I bought off the original owner had LeMans Stripes. I was all original. Came out of NJ and it was in Florida when I got it.

[shelbydoug]

Since there is absolutely no documentation that any 67 Lemans stripes were applied by SA, I'd think that they are all "day 2" items.

There were some very active "Shelby" new car dealers that were always attempting to promote the cars.

Very early applications of the stripes likely is attributed to some of those dealers.


Now my 67 is an original Gotham Ford card. I found the original owner and discussed the car.

In my case, when I got it, it had a "copy" of the "Supersnake" stripes. I specifically asked him about it.

He said that, he was from Brooklyn when he bought it and enrolled in the LA School of Automotive design soon after and drove the car to LA.

While he was there, there was a flash flood the car was in. He had Allstate Ins, and they refused to total the car and took it to Mel Burns Ford to have it repaired.

Now get this, while it was being repaired, they installed "GT40 seats" (which absolutely no one on this planet knows WTF he is talking about because they have never seen or even heard of them), installed a 427 to replace the flood damaged 428 AND had the stripes painted on the car.

So, I have to just note that information and acknowledge that there are a lot of snowflakes, too many in my view, that when the sun comes out, melt away and disappear?

But the short answer in my case (even though they aren't Lemans stripes but are 'Supersnake stripes, sorry for that) they are "day 2 - original owner installed.


Typically, there just are no easy, yes and no answers and simple boxes to check? Everyone seems to have a story and those that don't, seemingly the story just hasn't been documented yet? That's just they way it is. After all, they are genuine "Shelby's" and since when did those EVER fall into a "cookie cutter" designation? Maybe never?


Incidentally, Gotham in 67 sold more Shelbys then anyone else. I have never heard of any owner claiming that their car was purchased new from Gotham with stripes. Period.

I will also point out that you would have HAD to have bought it from Bill Kolb, and if it meant painting stripes on his mother to sell it to you, he would have.

Ask Howard how Kolb wouldn't let him leave until he bought the '65 at Larsen? They all but locked him in the room.


OH! Bartell did a poster called "Turn 2" which depicts a '67 in a race and it has Lemans stripes on it. That was seen in magazines like Popular Mechanics, but not limited to it, and had to have been influential at the time?

[2112]

A car I bought off the original owner had LeMans Stripes. I was all original. Came out of NJ and it was in Florida when I got it.

When was that?

[jguyer]

3120 has had a hard life, started out Brittany Blue (no stripes), sometime before I got it, someone decided over the top stipes are cool:



This is how I received it in '75 (1976 photo).



But this doesn't answer the original question of when it became popular. Other car in photo is KR convertible, it's a nice car and most people like it. But many people think nothing shouts "SHELBY", like Le Mans stripes. So as people modified their cars the stripes got added.

[greekz]

When I bought 2339, in 1987, it was painted white ( original Candy Apple Red) after sitting for nine years.  When repainted in 1990 Candy Apple Red, I added stripes because most all cars I saw back then had stripes.


I did the same with 6S1134, it had no stripes in 1992, but a repaint in 1995, stripes were added  Now, it is getting repainted with no stripes.  Tastes change over the years.

[427heaven]

It may have been a regional thing... Out on the left coast most real and clones or what ever you want to call non original Shelbys had Le Mans stripes installed in the mid, to latter part of the 1970s. They looked cool then as they do now. They were installed to look more racy and what a young mans dreams were made of back then.

[2112]

We all know they didn't come with stripes, but I am guessing the majority have them today.

I am just trying to get a feel when the "tidal wave" came. I can't blame it on gone in 60 seconds, but I wish I could.   

[roddster]

  When did "day 2" begin?  That's right, the day after you brought that new 67 Shelby home.  And then you looked up some Cobra Kit ads or literature and started dreaming....and making plans.

[67 GT350]

A car I bought off the original owner had LeMans Stripes. I was all original. Came out of NJ and it was in Florida when I got it.

When was that?

I bought it in 1978. I took a wrong turn and saw it sitting, I knocked on the door, he did not want to sell it, I gave him my number, he called me about 6 months later and said he would sell it. It was a nice car but sat near the intercostal water. All I am saying here, is what I was told. But since everyone says they never installed them, then it was probably the dealer? I guess. (I find it hard to think that ONE car could not have got them? Are we the only life in all the universes? Maybe? Maybe not?) We are to think that nobody said, "Hey Mister Shelby, if I stay late can I take car #@(* and paint stripes on it, just like the 66's?" and Mister Shelby said, "No"??

[shelbydoug]

A car I bought off the original owner had LeMans Stripes. I was all original. Came out of NJ and it was in Florida when I got it.

When was that?

I bought it in 1978. I took a wrong turn and saw it sitting, I knocked on the door, he did not want to sell it, I gave him my number, he called me about 6 months later and said he would sell it. It was a nice car but sat near the intercostal water. All I am saying here, is what I was told. But since everyone says they never installed them, then it was probably the dealer? I guess. (I find it hard to think that ONE car could not have got them? Are we the only life in all the universes? Maybe? Maybe not?) We are to think that nobody said, "Hey Mister Shelby, if I stay late can I take car #@(* and paint stripes on it, just like the 66's?" and Mister Shelby said, "No"??

I agree that it is difficult to believe not even one 67 got the stripes at the "airport".

I think that it could be more accurately stated that, no cars were "invoiced" with them? To my knowledge no cars were sold out of the Shelby facility either? I think that is why "Hi-performance motors" was set up? I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were painting on stripes. Like Kolb, they'd do whatever it took to sell the car.

[Side-Oilers]

Also interesting would be to know what the philosophy was in Shelby's mind, and those of his top guys, about NOT putting OTT stripes on the '67s.

They looked great on the earlier cars that had them, and probably helped sell some of those GT350s. 

Was Shelby American's (and/or Ford's) new design philosophy for '67 that their cars should look more subdued/classy...and thus no stripes...not even as an option?

I find that curious.   Why not offer them and charge the extra bucks? 

This may have been discussed before.  Anyone know?

[jguyer]

We all know they didn't come with stripes, but I am guessing the majority have them today.

I am just trying to get a feel when the "tidal wave" came. I can't blame it on gone in 60 seconds, but I wish I could.   

Here's where I lay the blame.