Customer (Dealer) Codes Assigned by Shelby American

Based on the SRG's scrutiny of Shelby Vehicle invoices, it appears that Shelby American assigned numeric codes to their customers (franchised dealers) midway through the '66 program. These codes begin appearing on late April 1966 invoices and lasted until the end on the 1966 calendar year. During this time, the codes were 1 to 3 digits. It is probable that when first assigned, codes were assigned alphabetically, by dealer name. e.g. Brondes = 8.

1967 Shelby GT Invoice with Numeric Customer Number

If you have a Shelby American invoice dated between May 1966 and December 1966, let us know what is typed in the far right of the ' Slsmn. / Cust. No. ' field.

Notes:

Shelby American's customer number for The Hertz Corporation was "94" potentially indicating that there were 93 franchised dealers when the codes were first issued.

Greg Kolasa's observation is that the addition of the customer number might have occurred at the same time as Shelby changed the design of the '66 invoice from a full-page portrait to the smaller, landscape-oriented page layout.

Circa April 1967, it appears that the Shelby-assigned customer numbers were modified to include a letter (alpha) prefix.

For domestic dealers, the letter would be the first letter of the dealership name (if the dealer's name was the owner's name, it would be the first letter of their last name). For example, we found "R70" on a Production Order for #2715, a late-built car sold to Theodore Robbins. The "R" would be for "Robbins," and it is possible the "70" number was their previously assigned numeric customer number.

1967 Shelby GT Production Order with R70 Customer Code

The earliest alphanumeric customer code found on a Production Order is for a car invoiced/shipped in early May 1967. Could this be another improvement related to the Ford takeover of Shelby American?

See Also

Customer (Dealer) Codes Assigned by SAI