1968 Shelby Dealer Introduction
This article was originally titled "California Introduction"

April 1, 2025

By Peter Disher, Jim Graham and Vincent Liska

A Coralsnake reader asked me if I had any additional information on this photograph that is part of the Downey Ford article. The photo shows Carroll Shelby with the owner of Downey Ford.
They are standing beside a white, 1968 Shelby. The car has Marchal fog lamps.


This led me to contact one of the people who helped me write the original Downey article, Jim Graham. Jim suggested the car was not actually a Downey Ford car and may have been part of a dealer introduction meeting.

He also shared this letter outlining the dealer introduction events across the country. That's quite the travel schedule for Mr. Shelby!

I found these articles in some of the California newspapers. Mel Burns Ford, City Motors and Theodore Robins are all California dealerships.
You can see the similarity in these pictures. This event was held December 13, 1967.

I believe this photograph is from the New York introduction. It was held on December 15, 1967. That's the famous, Al Grillo in the center. Carroll Shelby and Ed Casey are also in the picture.

This photograph appeared after the New York introduction. It appears to be a dark colored, convertible.

To date, I have not been able to find pictures of the Chicago or Miami cars used in the introductions. I have found some articles describing the events, however, the pictures used in those articles are stock photographs from the 1968 press information package.


These cars were all built extremely early in production. Only about three dozen cars had been shipped before these events took place. It is possible they can be identified if more pictures appear.





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