...after the very early days of Cobra sales, when the dealers were NOT Ford dealers but in most cases import of specialty dealers many of whom were friends or known to CS, FoMoCo got involved. This caused the phase out of the non-Ford franchises such as Coventry Motors.
The local Ford district office would propose dealers to SAI that they felt could handle the cars, were in a market area that justified the franchise and who MAY have expressed interest in the product. How do I know? My family had a Ford dealership (since 1919) and the local district office (Buffalo) did not think we were able to fit the profile. Ford had some trouble getting a dealer in Western New York. First attempt was Kenmore Motors, a 260 was sent there and advertised in an attempt to generate enough interest to tempt the dealer (Buss Ryder) to sign on...it was a no go. The dealer didn't see enough volume to justify the investment in time and space. Second attempt, Al Maroone Ford in Williamsville. Two CSX 2000 cars sent, one red, one white. I remember seeing these first hand. The white car went to Cookie Gilchrest, Buffalo Bills running back. I understand he did not keep it long, poor winter usability and he was quite hard on it. Maroone also passed on the franchise.
Understand that this was not a big money maker, the dealer could "floor" two or three regular Fords for the amount one CSX took up on his floor plan line. And this is long before these cars became "legends."
Third time a charm, Frontier Ford in Niagara Falls. The owner had Jerry Hamam, a performance orientated manager and did devote some money to the program. Frontier ran a drag car GT 350 and sold a few CSX 2000 cars plus the 427. We were offered Shelby cars via Frontier for any of our customersd who wanted one, we could buy from Frontier at a discount and resell to our customer. Jerry sometimes let my brother, who went to college in the Falls, "borrow" a GT 350 for a day. He was offered the 427 Cobra but when he went to pick it up the battery was dead, would not take a charge and to replce a street car battery takes some time (Cal, can you find a warranty claim for that?) so no go. Frontier did display a GT40 at the Bufalo Clutch Artists Autorama in 1966! It was the Ford press car that was shuttled around the country for display.
I do not know how many cars total Frontier sold but it was not a huge number. They did fairly well with the Mustangs but I doubt they sold more than 6 CSX cars total.
I had all of the Ford paper work that they sent to prospective SAI dealers until few years ago when someone offered me what I thought was a handsome sum for it.
Rick
Shelby dealers...
Hybrid Mode
