WHEN DID DANA CHEVY START SELLING CARS 66 OR 67?

[olredalert]

------Last time I talked to Schroeder he was living up here in MI. I have lost track of him though. Had an extremely memorable dinner with him and some others in Vegas at SEMA one time. I still laugh thinking about it now. Much scotch consumed. He was an animal behind the wheel..........Bill S

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

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Trivia questions:
Where did Peyton Cramer move from?

How did he derive the name 'Dana' for the dealership?

What was the name of the dealership before they bought it?

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Hmmm...

1) Where did Peyton Cramer move from?

He was Shelby American's General Manager before working at Dana

2)How did he derive the name 'Dana' for the dealership?

It was named after a street...I would presume it had to do with Dana Point, Ca (John Henry Dana...that whole deal)

3) What was the name of the dealership before they bought it? Southland Chevrolet A guess...I know it's wrong!

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Not Bad!!

I believe the street name of Dana was from Cramer's hometown in Ohio. The dealership was indeed Enoch Chev. and that awesome Z11 is fully restored and in a fine collection in PA.

[Late BrakeU2]

I chatted with Dick at the muscle car show at Rydell Chevy(formerly Baher) in Northridge yesterday.Our connection is his son used to be a crew chief on the American Honda showroom stock team I drove for back in the mid eighties(Peyton's son Peter was breifly involved with us as a driver also) Anyway to the best his of recollection Peyton and Paul bought the Chevy dealership from the previous owner(he could not remember the name of it) in the spring of 66.Dick used to work for H.B.Baher at his Hermosa Beach chevy dealership in the late fifties selling cars-but left to go drive for Penske.He suffered a broken back in a crash and was released from his contract by Roger.He knew Peyton from the racing scene when he was I believe the competition director for the Shelby team.

Anyway he said shortly after purchasing the store on Long Beach Blvd,Peyton and Paul bought an old Buick dealership down the road on Firestone Blvd.This was the location of the high performance center.The supercars were assembled there,but saw retail delivery at main store on L.B.BLVD.They also ran the race shop out of that location and hired Revson and Bondurant to drive the team cars.He said from the moment it opened it was a huge success,so much that after the first month they were in the black!

He recalls the first L72 cars being built that fall,but quite honestly he was focused on the racing program and his memory is far more keen with info on that end.He does remember Yenko Corvairs being sold at DANA(remeber Don and he chewed the same dirt at the runoffs)but I didn't want to pester him at the show as he was getting tugged from all sides for photo ops..I'll focus on some of the specific muscle car info next time..

Hope this helps

[427TJ]

Great information Mark! Nice reporting.

[427TJ]

I was just eating lunch at the kitchen table and reading Pat Ganahl's recent book on Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and I came upon these photos. Looks like a brand new '57 Chevy sold at Enoch Chevrolet in South Gate. I think that CA tab says 1957 and I'm pretty sure '57 stickers were red. Anyway, the particular chapter in the book covers the 1955-60 period of Roth's early pinstriping. At that time Roth's shop was located at 9001 Atlantic in South Gate. The guy laying tape on the trunk lid is Roth's older partner "The Baron."