 Tricks of the trade: Anderson Ford-Mercury has
customers lead-footing it back for more
Updated: Thursday,
April 26, 2007 7:29 AM CDT
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By TONY REID - H&R
Staff Writer |
CLINTON - Marc Arnold,
a missile engineer for Boeing, probably wouldn't
fly a million miles to get his Mustang Cobra
dragster worked on.
But a 265-mile road trip from his St. Louis home
to the Anderson Ford-Mercury dealership in
Clinton? No problem.
"We get such good deals, and they are such nice
folks who really know what they are doing," said
Arnold, 45. "It's worth the drive."
Anderson, tucked away on West Illinois 10, is
not your typical Ford dealer. They have a
motorsport division that specializes in
designing, selling and installing parts to make
already potent Mustangs go much faster, and it
has won them a nationwide - and even a worldwide
- reputation.
"We have dealers who sell our products
everywhere from Kuwait to England; we even sell
to Iraq," said Rick Anderson, a racing expert
who heads up the motorsport division. "We sell
to just about any place you can think of."
His brother Randy Anderson, general manager and
owner of the dealership, said customers in
person and by mail order are beating a path to
Clinton because they want to buy into Rick
Anderson's expertise.
A performance enthusiast since he was 16, Rick
Anderson has built a reputation for designing
and rigorous field testing to ensure products
from camshafts to superchargers really work.
"Rick's got performance packages from very mild
to totally bizarre," said Randy Anderson, 52.
"And they all do exactly what he says they
will."
Service above and beyond doesn't hurt business,
either. The missile expert from St. Louis
remembers how a valve spring broke once in a new
cylinder head the dealership had put in his
Cobra. Randy Anderson dispatched a driver with
trailer all the way to St. Louis to collect the
car and then fixed it for free.
"After that, I was a customer for life," said
Arnold, 45. "Over the years, we've purchased a
'97 Thunderbird, a 2001 Expedition, a 2001
Lightning (an F150 supercharged 5.4 liter truck)
and a 2003 Expedition from them. You go back to
people you like."
He originally bought that Cobra dragster - 9.63
seconds in the quarter mile at 142 mph - in 1993
as his street car. He later turned it into a
drag racer, after hotting it up with performance
parts from the dealership. Arnold said Rick
Anderson encouraged him to take his need for
speed to the racetrack, something the dealership
is keen on promoting.
"When you've got the power, you go to the drag
strip; you don't take chances on the road," said
Rick. "When you are going fast enough, you know
it's not safe to be anyplace else."
But the dealership also sells plenty of
go-faster goodies to people who maybe can't
afford to have a full-time racer but can splash
enough cash to indulge themselves with a kind of
street/strip hybrid. The dealership can modify
your existing Mustang or sell you a complete car
already reworked and tricked out by specialist
performance companies, which is the option Hank
Mager went for.
A technical representative for an agricultural
chemical company, Mager gave himself an early
Christmas gift in October in the shape of a fire
engine red Mustang known as a Roush stage one.
"Oh, it's the best-looking Mustang ever," said
Mager, 32, who lives in Weldon. "I love it."
He's already pumped up the power with an
after-market air filter system (an Anderson
house specialty), new rear end gearing and a
hand-held computer gizmo that allows him to
change tuning to increase power on demand.
"Now, I can go to the track, let 10 pounds of
pressure out of my drag radials, and race my
car," he said. "When you get done, you put your
air pressure back in your tires and drive home.
It's great."
Tony Reid can be
reached at treid@herald-review.com or
421-7977.
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Updated:
Thursday, April
26, 2007 7:29 AM
CDT
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Wild horses:
Your Mustang
short of giddyap?
Anderson
Ford-Mercury
will put some
spring in its
step
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By TONY REID -
H&R Staff Writer |
CLINTON - On the
face of it, the
Anderson
Ford-Mercury
dealership in
Clinton looks
just like your
typical car
place.
Families come
there to shop
for their next
kid-mover,
whether it be a
car or van.
Working guys buy
trucks they need
for the job.
Would-be owners
peer at the
window labels,
carefully
reading the EPA
city/highway
mileage figures,
looking for
whatever will
give them the
most motivation
for their buck.
And then there
is the
sub-section of
Anderson
customers who
couldn't care
less about any
of that
nonsense. They
want potent
Mustangs, and
they have often
ridden many
miles - from
places like
Colorado and
Nebraska - to
corral their
craving at this
little
dealership with
a growing
reputation for
stabling potent
ponies.
We're talking of
a breed of
modified Mustang
that sells
itself with a
direct appeal to
the driver's
central nervous
system. The cars
have been
reworked by
specialist
companies such
as Saleen of
California, for
example, which
offers Mustangs
with tweaked
engines,
suspensions,
interiors and
bodywork and has
promotional
literature that
reads like this:
"? Because this
is one 335
horsepower beast
you can't break.
It was bred to
run. Born to be
wild. And you
have no choice
but to set it
free. Once you
do, you'll
realize that no
matter what the
title and
registration
say, you don't
own this car. It
owns you, the
road, and
everyone on it."
Not exactly your
typical Ford
family sedan
happy speak. And
special edition
Mustangs can
cost up to twice
what typical
production line
versions sell
for and are
aimed squarely
at those
motivated by
passion and the
means to indulge
it.
"Most of these
customers are
not 18- or
25-year-old
kids," said
Randy Anderson,
the dealership
general manager
and owner. "They
are doctors,
lawyers; they
are bankers.
They are people
who years ago
wanted a fast
car and couldn't
afford it. But
now they can."
So, while
fleeting youth
may have fled
long ago, it's
never too late
to gallop after
it. Anderson
Ford-Mercury has
all the means
necessary for
hot pursuit with
a Mustang lineup
that includes
those cars
tricked out by
Saleen and a
Michigan firm
called Roush.
And then there
are the muscle
Mustangs
produced by Ford
itself, which
include the
Shelby Cobra
version - a
factory rocket
packing 500
horsepower.
"We've sold
seven of them
this year," said
Randy. "The
average dealer
might only get
one, but because
of what we do in
Mustangs, even
though we're a
small Ford
dealer, we're a
top Mustang
dealer and we
get a bigger cut
of the pie.
We've sold cars
to customers in
New York, New
Jersey,
Colorado, all
over the place -
50 percent of
the cars we sell
are to customers
outside of
Illinois who are
drawn by our
reputation."
Still feel a
need for more
speed? Randy's
brother Rick has
a wagonload of
goodies waiting
over in the
Anderson Ford
Motorsport
division, which
he runs. A
life-long racing
enthusiast, he
has developed
his own line of
go-faster
Mustang products
ranging from
radically
modified air and
supercharger
intake systems
to camshafts and
even a hand-held
computer that
lets drivers
custom-tune
their cars.
The dealership
sponsors some
very successful
Mustang race
cars, which earn
lots of
specialist
racing press
coverage and win
the dealership's
products more
fans throughout
the nation and
all over the
world. "Kuwait
is one of our
biggest foreign
customers," said
Rick. "We do a
lot with them."
They sell to
both race
enthusiasts
burning up the
quarter mile and
regular owners
who like to
occasionally
unwind their
potent street
cars at the
track. The
performance cars
and parts
business is
worth hundreds
of thousands of
dollars a year,
and the
motorsports
division fields
maybe 1,000
customer
enquiries a
month. It also
ships out a
constant stream
of mail order
parts, while its
own service bays
are kept busy
fitting
performance
equipment for
owners who show
up in person,
often having
driven hundreds
of miles for the
privilege.
As Rick and
Randy speak, a
Shelby Cobra
convertible is
hooked up to a
Dyno machine (a
kind of rolling
road for the
wheels while
engine
performance is
monitored by
computer.) This
limited edition
street-legal
Mustang costs
about $70,000,
and the owner
immediately
wheeled it over
to the
motorsport
section for Rick
to modify. By
the time the
maestro has
performed his
laying on of
hands, the stock
500 horsepower
will have been
stepped up to
about 600.
During a
demonstration,
the supercharged
engine fires
into life, roars
for a while and
then gets
punched into
what sounds like
the equivalent
of automotive
warp speed with
a jet-like whine
that seems to
come from inside
your head before
it's shut off
and the computer
numbers checked.
Rick says the
car probably
just did the
equivalent of
140 mph while
standing still
and won't let
you down at the
local race
track.
"Oh, it's got
enough
horsepower to go
190 mph," he
says,
matter-of-factly.
Tony Reid can be
reached at
treid@herald-review.com
or 421-7977.
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