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I have an opinion as to why San Francisco Hertz cars received the parking brake warning light. This may be obvious to anyone familiar with that City, but a parking experience I had there made an impression on me.

San Francisco is a city with many hills (this becomes obvious to anyone watching the film Bullitt). Accordingly they have certain regulations regarding on street parking. These include what is known as "curbing your wheels", which is a requirement to turn the front wheels into the curb. Being an Easterner, how do I know this? Well, during a visit to SF following attending SAAC-6 in Monterey in 1981, I parked my rental car onstreet, facing uphill. I returned to find a ticket on the windshield for failure to curb the wheels.

So I suspect that engaging the parking brake was likely also a requirement. The light may have served as reminder to engage the brake, and /or disengage it when pulling out. The latter was important with the Shelby metallic brake lining, which does not become most effective until heated up. So Hertz may have wanted the light as a preemptive measure to remind customers what to do.

A quick test to determine if the problem is in the solenoid is the next time this happens, whack the solenoid hard with the handle end of a large screwdriver. If it disengages the starter, you have located the source of the trouble.

It was quite possibly for an alarm switch. I have seen this on various cars over the years, especially those from urban areas where the only parking was on street.

Couldn't resist...

Or maybe this?

Or this?

I have been through this twice. The reproduction fastback windows are too large, leaving insufficient room for the reveal moldings to attach.

The first instance was a Pilkington glass purchased from CJ Pony Parts (they are local to me and I could pick it up so no shipping expense.) It would not fit. I sourced a good used original glass from another long time local Mustang vendor and it fit properly. Fortunately I was able to return the CJ one.

The second time involves a Shelby that I acquired as an unfinished restoration. The glass was already installed but not the moldings. Again, there was insufficient room for the reveal moldings to attach. This glass had no manufacturer etchings so was also reproduction.

I called ECS - they have acquired PS Auto Glass. I specifically asked them if they had received any customer feedback regarding fit and also requested they give me the actual physical dimensions of their glass before I would order one. They never replied to the request.

I finally dug into my stash and pulled out an NOS Carlite glass with a 6A date code that I had been saving for a few decades. It fit and the moldings went on easily.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Bill. (It must have been neat to have a Shelby franchised dealer within walking distance)

You seem to be certain it was Saturday. Could it have been a day or two later, other than Saturday December 11, 1965?
According to the Caravan tour schedule those 4 touring vehicles were between Charlotte, NC (12/10) and Washington, DC (12/13).
I don't doubt you saw 5r213 in person, (that's very cool), but maybe it was a different day.

Thinking further about that location as a tour stop, maybe they stopped at the FFF dealer after the DC stop, later on the 13th, instead of the 14th for the Moorestown Mall day in southern NJ. (We currently know nothing about the DC location stop.)

Other possible dealership tour stops could be;
2nd stop; maybe 'S&C Motors' in San Francisco
4th stop; maybe 'Horn Williams' in Dallas, Texas
5th stop; maybe 'Milo Brooks Inc.' in Chicago, Illinois
8th stop; maybe Carey Paul Ford; in Decator, Georgia
12th stop; maybe 'Tasca Ford' in Providence, Rhode Island

Well, I am at an age where memory and reality sometimes do not align!    However, while it is possible I was there on other than a Saturday, I do recall it being during the day and the service department being closed, as there was no one around when I saw it.

At that time Pennsylvania had what were known as "blue laws" which prohibited many types of businesses from being open on Sundays, including car dealers, so we can definitely eliminate the 12th. It could have been on the 13th, but that being a weekday, I would have been in school. And being December, it would have been dark by the time I made the return walk home from FFF, so I consider that possibility unlikely.

There was a set of double doors in the back of the FFF showroom that led directly into the service area and 213 was parked in the bay nearest the doors. I attached another photo from 1970 - this is a snapshot taken inside the showroom by a FFF employee showing astronaut Frank Borman during his visit to the dealership. He is on the far right. FFF general manager Dave Roth is beside him. Harold Gross, who along with his brother Jack owned the dealership at the time, is on the left. The open doors can be seen between Gross and Roth.

While not entirely on topic, I have two other photos of Borman posing with employees during that visit. The first one shows Borman flanked by the Gross brothers, Harold on our left and Jack to the right. Roth is next to Jack. The distinctive framing and angle of the showroom windows is visible behind them. This is just inside where the Shelby lineup was photographed in 1965.

The second was taken at the exterior entrance to the showroom, facing the street. Note the corner of a '68 Shelby in the lower right with a Francis For Fords sticker on the deck lid.

I am acquainted with a few FFF employees from that time. It is a long shot, but I can ask them if they recall any of the circumstances regarding 213's stop at the dealership.

Thanks for the newspaper article source. The article is difficult to read. I'll have to check out that website.

Besides the December 14th stop at the Moorestown Mall in NJ...
They appear to have stopped earlier that day at the 'FRANCIS for FORDS' dealer in Harrisburg, PA.
5R213 is pictured, parked in front of the dealership, with other GT350s in this attached photo.
There's no sign of the other cars or the Transporter, but they might be parked next to the camera view point...
or
it was a quick stop for a photo opportunity with the R model. (less likely)

I was in high school in 1965 and lived about a half hours' walk from Francis For Fords. I often haunted the place on weekends, since they had the Shelby franchise and there were always interesting cars to look at.

I saw 5R213 purely by chance during one of these visits. It was on a Saturday and it was unceremoniously parked inside in the service department, which did not operate on weekends. I could hardly believe my eyes! Unfortunately, I was not carrying a camera, unlike the month previous when a friend and I trekked to FFF one weekday evening to see 6S101 in the showroom and shot photos of each other sitting in it (see attachment).

December 14, 1965 was a Tuesday, so my visit was likely on the previous Saturday, December 11th. Neither the transporter or any of the other cars were on site - believe me I would have noticed if they were! Given the note in reply #33 that the Caravan was at Young Ford in Charlotte, North Carolina on December 10th, the FFF photo was likely taken during the weekend that I saw it or on the following Monday. The distance from Harrisburg to its next reported stop in Moorestown, NJ is about 120 miles, so it would have taken the better part of a day to get to that destination and set the car up for display on the 14th.

I do not recall seeing any announcements or press coverage of the Caravan being in town, so I believe the Harrisburg stop may have been among several serendipitous visits it made along the tour. This could have been the result of some lobbying by the dealer, since as you can see from the photo, they had several GT350's in stock. And/or it could have been an opportunity to service the transporter at the dealer. Perhaps more details will emerge as we go along.

Congratulations Bill!  And here you are in SFM5 006 at Hershey in 1977.  Cool sunglasses.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I had forgotten about that SAAC-2 photo! Thanks for including it.

Seeing this photo prompts recollection of another facet of my 006 experience.  Pennsylvania had a regulation in the 1970's forbidding modifications to exhaust systems from factory spec. They strongly enforced it, especially against young drivers with cars equipped with Thrush side pipes, Cherry Bomb mufflers, etc, which were very popular at the time.

So 006's side exit pipes attracted constant law enforcement attention. The first year I owned it I was stopped over 30 times. It got to be kind of a game - I carried a copy of the '65 GT350 owner's manual in the glove box. The manual has a diagram highlighting the equipment that made the Mustang into a GT350. Whenever I was stopped, I would show the manual to the officer and politely explain how the exhaust was factory installed and as much as I agreed it was loud, I couldn't legally change it under the law.

I was into wearing those reflective sunglasses at the time, partly because of these police encounters. Being a young smarta--, it was offputting for them not to be able to see my eyes, thereby providing some psychological balance to the situation. The only drawback was my then girlfriend hated them!

Pennsylvania eventually relented on the exhaust law, I believe following some legislative action by SEMA.

Love the snow tires on the black steel wheels..... Gangsta! 

And here you can see why I needed those snow tires!

[Happy Anniversary, 006 !]

On March 31, 1971, 50 years ago today, I purchased my 65 GT350 serial 006. I had wanted one of these cars ever since seeing one in the film Red Line 7000 in 1965, but being in my mid teens at the time, an actual purchase had to wait.

I bought 006 from Ned Beshore. Ned, along with his brother Scott, each owned a '65 350 (Scott had 5S200) plus they had '66 GT350H, 6S819, which they were running as an SCCA hill climb car. They wanted to buy a Cobra to race, which required that the Hertz plus one of the '65's be sold to fund the acquisition. They arbitrarily picked 006 to sell, and put it out on their father and uncle's used car lot, where I spotted it during one of my frequent visits, as they were good friends of mine. I asked them what serial number it was, to which they replied "Oh, it's number 500- something". So I cannot lay claim to be being savvy in that regard, it was just dumb luck that it was 006.

They were asking $2300 and I managed to negotiate that down to $1900. I only had about $1000 in cash, so I went to two finance companies on the same day, borrowed $500 from each of them and got the car. They later sold the Hertz and purchased CSX2566, which raced under the name "Snake Express".

I thrashed 006 for the first ten years I owned it - street raced it, outran the cops in it, had romantic encounters in it, all the things 20-somethings do to their cars. I later installed a Boss 302 engine and drag raced it for a while. In 1980, I decided to return it to street trim and take it to SAAC 5 (the original engine and driveline had been pulled and saved). Unfortunately, I didn't complete it in time, so I shoved it into the garage with the thought "I'll get back to this later" and rode off to the Dearborn convention with some friends.

"Later" turned out to be 30 years. The family homestead was put up for sale in 2010, so 006 was losing its storage. I decided it was time to get it back on the road. Off it went to a trusted mechanic friend. and not long after I was driving it again.

So to celebrate the day, I thought a little photographic history would be appropriate:
The first photo is the January '65 press preview at Riverside Raceway - 006 is one of the cars in that lineup - but I don't know which one!

The second photo is the first owner with 006 on the day he bought it, March 5, 1965 at the Baltimore Auto Show. The sign on the roof reads "The meanest of Mustangs  - Cobra GT350"

The third photo is yours truly with 006 about eight months after I bought it. A plan to restage this photo today at the same location was thwarted by heavy rain.

But it doesn't melt when it gets wet - The last photo is in the rain at the 2014 50th Anniversary of the Mustang show at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

006 retains a rough and ready look - some would say "patina" - I call it "experience". I  have been asked if I intend to restore it, to which I reply "H--l no, it took me 50 years to get it looking like this!" Besides, it's more fun to drive it as it is.

So Happy Anniversary, 006 ! I hope to keep enjoying you for years to come.

If I recall correctly, CSX2011 was at SAAC 12 in Charlotte in 1987. It had recently been unearthed and the owner displayed it in the car show along with a sign taking a poll on restoring it vs leaving it alone. By the end of the day, the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of leaving it as it was. Bear in mind this was long before "barn find" mania took root.

At that time the conventions were still being visited by some fellows who owned an unusual vintage camera that rotated on a high tripod and took a panoramic shot of an area maybe 200 feet across. They usually photographed the car show, but that year at Charlotte there were quite a few genuine Cobras in attendance, so the focus (no pun intended) was on them.

The panoramic photo was of all the Cobras arrayed on the Charlotte Motor Speedway front straight. Front and center was CSX2011, with Carroll himself, who was in attendance, standing beside it.

That would be THE photo to post of the car, if that can be done.

I believe this is 67400F2A01983, previously owned for many years by Ray Jones of Linden, NJ. I compared the ad photos to ones I took of the car when I looked at it in 2017 and many details match. There have been some detail improvements, such as the shifter, which was a Hurst when I saw it.

I spoke to Ray early in November and he told me he had sold it to a buyer in Columbia, NJ. The car had previously been advertised in Hemmings Motor News, I believe in 2019, for around the same price.

Ray was a rep for a major automotive paint company and the finish on the car is very well done.

By the p/n it appears this is a hood pin kit for a Torino Cobra. Still a good item, albeit not for a Shelby.

I hope that isn't a real K code. What an extreme waste that would be.

No need for concern on this - the first digit of the production number sequence (the last six numbers of the VIN) in 1960's FoMoCo serial numbers relates to a particular carline:

100-300's - Ford vehicles (typically)
400's - Lincoln
500's - Mercury

So the VIN on this vehicle is obviously contrived, as no 1967 Mustang would have a 500,000 series sequential production number.

An interesting side note - Ford built so many Mustangs during the extended 1965 Model year that they reached the end of the 300's at the Dearborn assembly plant. This is why late build '65's constructed there have 600 and 700,000 series VINs, as they had to jump over the numbers reserved for Lincoln and Mercury.

The 1969 Shelbys were an exception with their 480,000 series numbers - done when Shelby identification became standardized with existing Ford practices.  Since Lincoln production would not likely reach that volume, the upper limits of that numeric series were reassigned to identify this specialty model. Ford did the same thing again ten years later, assigning 480,000 VINs to the Indy Pace Car versions of the 1979 Mustang.