Was High Performance Motors a full fledged Ford dealership?

[owenkelley]

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?

[98SVT - was 06GT]

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.

[Coralsnake]

Here is an earlier thread

https://www.saacforum.com/index.php?topic=10258.0

[silverton_ford]

Who were the stakeholders or partners in HPM?   Carroll Shelby, Lew Spencer, Peyton Cramer and two others....  Who are the two others?

[owenkelley]

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....

[Side-Oilers]

^^^ 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.)

[430dragpack]

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.

[98SVT - was 06GT]

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.

[propayne]

[silverton_ford]

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.

[J_Speegle]

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 

[98SVT - was 06GT]

When 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.

[J_Speegle]

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

[honker]

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

[98SVT - was 06GT]

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

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.