Читать книгу Lost Muscle Car Dealerships - Duncan Scott Brown - Страница 17

All the racing action going on across the street certainly kept Clippinger Chevrolet on its toes. Having two major dealerships in one block brought in a lot of traffic to both dealerships. Clippinger was doing so well that in the spring of 1966 the father/son team embarked on a massive upgrade to the dealership. Work was completed in early 1967 on a brand-new, 70,000-square-foot building that took up the whole block when the parking display area was added. The new premises had 96 service stalls, 35 salesmen offices, and a 16,000-square-foot parts department.

Clippinger’s service waiting area and cashier office were on the north edge of the building past the showroom. A sign high up on the wall welcomed customers to “the Clippinger Family.”

The new building also included a dynamometer, which was handy for performance tuning. Mention of the dyno was made in advertisements in 1967, which stated that Clippinger had a complete high-performance department.

Having a dyno on-site made Clippinger a go-to dealer for performance tuning. A huge parts department also enabled the dealership to sell new cars with customer-specified add-ons, which were rolled into the monthly payments through GMAC.

Founder Hale Clippinger literally worked up until the day he died. He passed away in his sleep on Monday, October 6, 1969, two days after his 92nd birthday. His son Norman H. Clippinger took over the dealership at age 56.