With additions from Craig R and Vinny Liska
Posted 1/11/2021
Yates-Stevens Ford was located at 10340 Manchester Boulevard, Kirkwood, Missouri. Kirkwood is a suburb of Saint Louis.
The dealership was operated by Mack Yates and "Bud" Stevens.
Mack Yates raced his personal Cobra and won several races. Here is a rare shot of the car, before it was repainted blue! This promotion featured Bob Bondurant and some Playboy bunnies. The car is CSX 2385. Mack Yates also raced a 1965 R-model (5R104). It is rumored the fleet manager, Norman Bovie, had a large stash of racing photos and movies, including this car, used by the dealership during promotional gatherings.
This 1967 advertisement features a stock photograph supplied by Shelby American.
Someone ay Yates-Stevens needed a lot of front end parts for a center headlight, 1967 Shelby. Invoice courtesy of the Shelby American Automobile Club / Vinny Liska.
This Yates envelope looks like it was originally addressed to Shelby in LA and forwarded to Torrance, CA.
During 1968, Yates-Stevens was in the top 10 of Shelby sales. Serial Number 535 is looking really good.
Number 1211 is shown here.
This newspaper clipping shows Shelby with Yates and Stevens. I can't tell if that's a GT350 or a GT500 behind them.
1002 is another car from the dealership. About a dozen GT500s were sold by the dealership in 1968.
This literature must have printed by Yates-Stevens. If you look closely, one has the company name. The other has a simple company ink stamp. Courtesy of Craig R.
Things got serious when the GT500 KR started arriving. The dealership sold 40 of them. This beautiful, blue convertible is # 2324.
They also liked the special paint cars. Who doesn't? This KR convertible is # 3024. Special yellow convertibles are very rare.
Even more rare is a special red fastback. This one is 3304. Special red (WT4017) is not the same as the production color, Candyapple Red.
More great literature provided by Craig. Best of all this one is numbered "68" of 300.
4272 is a GT500 KR fastback from Yates-Stevens Ford.
How about a picture of a brand new, 1968 in the Yates showroom? Now that is just plain awesome. This photograph was taken by Francis Scheidegger in September, 1968. Photo courtesy of State Historical Society of Missouri. This car can probably be identified. I suspect the color is Highland Green.
Francis also gives us a look at the Yates-Stevens dealer nameplate.
Wheels falling off 1969 Shelbys actually became a big issue in 1969. It would eventually result in a total recall.
Well, this advertisment is very interesting. There are four Shelbys equipped with 427 engines. One is a special paint car. There is also a black with white "racing stripes". Is this an editorial typo? I am so confused :-)
The original location of Yates Stevens Ford is now occupied by Suntrup Ford.