Milo Madsen worked in sales at the dealership for more than 26 years, and Bennett Ford - which later became Rick Warner Ford - was the only authorized Shelby American dealer in the Intermountain West. What's more, Ford had made only 562 GT 350s in 1965, and Bennett was only allocated four cars.
"My dad took me for a ride, and I said right then and there, 'Someday I have got to get one of these,' '' Clyde Madsen said.
Later, the teenager who worked part time as a detailer at the dealership, would sneak into the back lot where the cars were kept and dream of one day owning one of the rare Mustangs.
He's no longer dreaming, having bought one of the rare cars in 1997. The cars that sold for $5,500 to $6,000 in 1965 are now being sold at auctions for more than $300,000.
But this weekend represents a dream come true for the Highland High graduate (1969) because he has been reunited with three of the four Bennett Ford cars at Miller Motorsports Park as part of the 32nd Shelby American Automobile Club (SAAC) National Convention.
"From a sentimental standpoint, it is fabulous to think that [this weekend] I could be sitting in the exact same car that I went for a ride in when I was 14," Madsen said. "It is both special and ironic."
Also ironic is the fact that the SAAC's lodging headquarters is Salt Lake City's Little America Hotel, which owns the parking lot across the street where Bennett Ford was once located. The fourth car, No. 283, is in New Mexico and couldn't make the reunion because its owner's son is returning from a tour of duty in Iraq. More irony: two of the four cars have ended up in the same town - Edmonds, Wash., a Seattle suburb.
Mark Hovander and Steve Bowman own those cars. Hovander is the third owner of No. 282. It was originally purchased by a Salt Lake City insurance magnate and passed on to his sons, Steve and Jon Brinton. A man named Jeff Smith bought it from them and had it from 1968 to 1998 before selling it to Hovander.
Car No. 381 has had one owner, Farmington's Mike Steed. He bought it in 1965 at the urging of Steve Harris, owner of Salt Lake City's Steve Harris Imports. Unlike the others, Steed races his GT 350 all around the country.
Steed's car has Utah Jazz vinyl appliques on it now because he uses it to promote some of Larry H. Miller's holdings, but underneath is the familiar white paint scheme with the blue stripe. All 562 cars in 1965 were the exact same, right down to the paint job and stripe.
However, Madsen's car, which was sold at Dick Bohn Ford Company in Gretna, La., in 1965, has a reproduced sales sticker that shows it was purchased for $5,792 when all the accessories were added in.
"All these cars were built by Shelby to compete against the [Chevy] Corvette," Madsen said. "Ford wanted to beat Corvette with the Mustangs, so they went to Carroll Shelby and said, 'How do we do it?' And this is what he came up with."
That, and a special reunion for four lucky car owners.
drew@sltrib.com
