By Robert Emslie
It seems like it’s nearly impossible to buy a car from a dealer as factory equipped, but without some sort of dealer add-on. Hell, the Cohen Brothers famously poked fun at this practice in the movie Fargo, which forever sullied the offering of the dealership undercoating. Sometimes dealers, or dealer associations, go a step further and offer special packages that denote a whole unique model. Sometimes those are nothing to laugh at.
That was just such a case with the 1968 Ford Mustang California Special, a model that was dreamed up by Ford’s California Dealers Association, and which today is recognized as a desirable member of the Mustang legacy. Not every dealer-originated model has been so feted, and in fact most have long since been forgotten.
What we’re interested in today is those that haven’t been forgotten. In fact, what we want to know is your opinion on what has been history’s best dealer offering. What do you think, who has had the nicest package?
Image: Mustang360
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Jeff Glucker
My heart is with Mr. Norm, but the wallet says Yenko.
http://www.nickeyperformance.com/wp-content/gallery/1969-white-douglas-yenko/dscn2134.jpg
Beat me to it.
http://www.superchevy.com/features/sucs-0827-1969-1970-yenko-novas/
The answer I thought of was Yenko, but different…
https://cdn1.mecum.com/auctions/sc0513/sc0513-152320/images/sc0513-152320_1@2x.jpg
The first answer I thought of was Yenko, but different…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7d354aece4aca0ffe3f7f1d70b3c912324b909459d0d4d4be0322aa0f4c39ac2.jpg
Apparently someone has bought the rights to use the Yenko name
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1108628_800-hp-yenko-2017-chevrolet-camaro-revealed
http://www.wallaceracing.com/RAV-story-page1.jpg
Most of the Ram Air V Pontiac Engines were dealer installed.
I know I mentioned this once before — probably sometime in the Pre-Disqus Period — but the only regional dealer package I have any specialized knowledge of was the Midwest-only (MO, KS, IA, NE?) “Mid-Am” edition Toyota Celica in 1979. I remember them being advertised on TV during the 10PM news, and actually saw them new on the dealer’s lot at the end of my street. It was fairly typical, frankly. As I recall, it just had two-tone blue body side stripes over white, special badging, RWL tires and upgraded seats. It’s sure obscure, however. The ONLY reference I can find online is a classified ad for a used one in the Salina newspaper in 1988.
What about the Mustang Twister special?
http://mustangattitude.com/mustang/1970/1970_00131_01.jpg
https://www.mecum.com/lots/KC0415-216341/1970-ford-mustang-mach-1-twister-special/
I swear I read that as Mustang Twitter special and thought, “Have we, as a society, really sunk that far?”.
0-60 in 140 characters or less.
Not to mention 40 years less
No, but Ford might.
Not the best from a performance perspective, but certainly memorable for a Seattle kid from the 70s. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be94934eec019c1d7911559448b99ccafd12e15ce98d7fc675ceb552a81755e7.jpg
Are you referring to the team or the car?
Yes. The car was a sticker package with a personalized plaque on the dash. At least some players got them. I remember seeing Jim Zorn’s in the dealership.
I remember seeing these back in the day. Surprisingly this afternoon I saw an older Odyssey with the classic blue and green stripe and head from one end to the other. I’d say it was about 18″ high.
Would the ’67 Rambler wagon’s regional editions be consider dealer packages, or factory spec’d?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6127fbb7af47c42548cf993429d80fa0c7539cef1ae8fc4f3b8e5c34829ec9dd.jpg
Didn’t realize those were regional. Dig the Mariner.
“Simulated bleached teakwood” FTW!
So bad, it’s good.
YARRRR!
A bit over the top – $109k Mustang.
2015 Galpin Fisker Ford Mustang Rocket, courtesy Scalpin’ Galpin Motors…..
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e720398b3b1ccde857045d5dd6a5c6764784b06b542f32e43a7218b7705f419.jpg
http://www.galpinautosports.com/blog/press/article/2015-galpin-fisker-ford-mustang-rocket-first-drive
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0ko7KJhT9Sc/TbYHvvfrCZI/AAAAAAAEV3U/vhRJnWsAfAw/s1600/Kowalski-Edition-Dodge-Challenger-1007.JPG
I was wondering if anyone was going to remember that one.
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1059139_dodge-dealer-builds-kowalski-edition-challenger-srt8-392
In the early ’90s Ford had a regional package for MN and I think Wisconsin on F150s and then eventually Rangers called the Northland Edition. Basically XLT Lariats with aluminum rims and different paint that wasn’t available anywhere else (although back then Lariats weren’t the dolled up trucks they are today – leather, power windows, automatic transmissions were still optional). Google can’t seem to find me one, but the colors were a bright blue or a burgundy over a gray rocker.
The Dakotas got those too; one of the beater pickups on my family’s farm is a burgundy ’95 with the same two-tone pattern and wheels as the picture below.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/bbpics/187844_1.jpg
The ’92 and up refresh must have gotten a little different paint, because I thought the blue was much bluer – that looks almost teal. (It’s also been 25+ years so maybe me not remember so good)
Do you remember the special We-Fest GMC pickups from that same era? I can’t recall what the dealers were calling them, but they had those gaudy yellow z stripes.
Are these the stripes? The northland edition is the first thing I thought of. I honestly don’t remember the GMC half-arsed attempt to compete with Ford
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be6279884e7f0cfb5a38a875e61103839189d5ab0f963d7d58e1f9d578994002.jpg
Those were Zorbaz giveaway prizes werent they? Detroit Lakes area had a few running around
Maybe that’s what they were – Zorbaz instead of We-Fest. Regardless, they were very unattractive, and they always seemed to be on very base SLEs with base steel wheels and NO options.
Yep. Red with yellow z stripe gmc’s. Regular cab long box somewhere around 90 or 91
The Gay brothers ran a rainbow-hued Pontiac sponsored by their family’s dealership. Does that count as a dealer package? They probably sold it eventually.
http://www.pontiacsonline.com/Don%20Gay%20Pontiac%20Firebird%201968.JPG
That Gay package is fabulous.
Does it drive straight?
Ironically, as a drag car, most of its driving is straight.
In Dick-in-son TX. Nice.
Gay. Pontiac.
Dick.in.son.
7th grade me is losing it.
Not unlike the Mustang, the Volvo 242 came as a California Special. Dig the crazy interior!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/26aa9a58d61a474612b8735e8c035009f4b8e4b2c6caa2c4b770232b03faa693.jpg
I remember back in the early 80s there were TV ads featuring The Good Olds guys offering a Metro NY NJ package that had heavy duty shocks and brakes. Can’t find it on youtube though.
http://www.downvids.net/video/bestimages/img-good-olds-guys-483.jpg
There’s a true COPO Camaro here in town that was special ordered by a little old lady (possibly from Pasadena) in 1969 in anonymous green with houndstooth tan interior and optional folding rear seats. She used it as a grocery getter for nearly a decade. I really don’t think you can beat having the baddest Camaro under a completely plain bodystyle.
That’s doing it wrong surely with a COPO. I wonder what the story behind it was, you couldn’t end up with the car by accident.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3cafe9c9ac9da6b03e899e29115c60234832d6b8502c17bc4718511962aaf825.jpg If you checked the right boxes on the order form in 1967, you could order a Z/28 option package on your new Camaro. With some of the packages, plenum air intakes and exhaust headers were placed loose in the trunk for installation by the dealer or owner.
Not sure how exclusive it was but there was a Lincoln Mercury store that put a Landau top, wheels and pinstriping together and voilà… The Mercury Cougar Classic.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/1/2901/3761/7251880009_large.jpg
The top and spoiler are sending mixed messages.
Needs wide whites, wire wheels, and the “Palm Beach Special” badges.
Vogue tire all the things!
AMC’s “Group 19” dealer installed high performance parts. You could order your late 60’s/early ’70’s AMC with hotter cams, forged cranks and rods, high rise or cross plane aluminum intake manifolds, front and rear spoilers, and a host of other bits.
http://www.planethoustonamx.com/main/group-19.htm
Pangra! The extended-nose, corner-carving, turbocharged freak show created by the sales manager of Huntington Ford in my neck of the woods, Arcadia, California (the location is now home to Mercedes-Benz of Arcadia).
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2215/2238504311_652c7561c5_b.jpg
Came here to post this. Glad I can rely on you guys.