CSM Numbers

[SAI-Steven]

I never could understand why they were not numbered in order and limited to the given number to be built. If 500 is the set number then why would any be numbered 501 or higher? I would think the CSM Number wouldn't be assigned to a Vehicle until the last day of the Build of that Vehicle.

David,

 

While issuing CSM numbers that way would have been a much easier approach and certainly would have benefited the Registry record keeping, it was just never really possible.

 

Keep in mind that Carroll used to reserve the #001 car for his personal collection along with reserving cars #2-10 for Ford & VIP's. Many times these #1-10 cars would not be built until later in the program after many other higher CSM numbered cars were built. Customer cars always come first, who would want to be told, sorry we can't build your car right away as we are currently building cars for employee's & Vip's so many times cars with a CSM number above #10 were built before cars #1-10.

 

Then we had mod shop specific groups of CSM numbers come into play. For example in the early days Tasca Ford was assigned CSM numbers of 300 to 399, Quantum Performance was assigned 400 to 499 and Sean Hyland was assigned 900 to 999.

 

So if we were to maintain a strict in sequence order of issuing CSM numbers would a Tasca customer be happy being told, sorry Las Vegas must build 299 cars before we can build your car with a CSM of 300. Yes that's an extreme example but is being used to show how CSM numbers can and will vary and should never be considered a sequence number.

 

Another example is the 2008 Shelby GT CSM numbers. Although production started with just the Grabber Orange cars there was a point where Vista Blue cars were also being built at the same time. This meant that the first Vista Blue SGT was issued a CSM number higher than the last Grabber Orange car so that there would be no Vista Blue cars mixed in with the Grabber Orange cars.

 

Now if all of that wasn't enough we now need to factor in international mod shops or special editions of a certain model where we try to block out a certain group of numbers just for that special edition and where some non special edition cars with a higher CSM number would be built before the special edition group of CSM numbers.

 

And there are also some other factors that can not be publicly discussed so in the end it is what it is and CSM numbers should be only looked at as a Shelby assigned serial number and never looked at as a build sequence number.

 

Hope this helps some.

[rsr]

David,

 

While issuing CSM numbers that way would have been a much easier approach and certainly would have benefited the Registry record keeping, it was just never really possible.

 

Keep in mind that Carroll used to reserve the #001 car for his personal collection along with reserving cars #2-10 for Ford & VIP's. Many times these #1-10 cars would not be built until later in the program after many other higher CSM numbered cars were built. Customer cars always come first, who would want to be told, sorry we can't build your car right away as we are currently building cars for employee's & Vip's so many times cars with a CSM number above #10 were built before cars #1-10.

 

Then we had mod shop specific groups of CSM numbers come into play. For example in the early days Tasca Ford was assigned CSM numbers of 300 to 399, Quantum Performance was assigned 400 to 499 and Sean Hyland was assigned 900 to 999.

 

So if we were to maintain a strict in sequence order of issuing CSM numbers would a Tasca customer be happy being told, sorry Las Vegas must build 299 cars before we can build your car with a CSM of 300. Yes that's an extreme example but is being used to show how CSM numbers can and will vary and should never be considered a sequence number.

 

Another example is the 2008 Shelby GT CSM numbers. Although production started with just the Grabber Orange cars there was a point where Vista Blue cars were also being built at the same time. This meant that the first Vista Blue SGT was issued a CSM number higher than the last Grabber Orange car so that there would be no Vista Blue cars mixed in with the Grabber Orange cars.

 

Now if all of that wasn't enough we now need to factor in international mod shops or special editions of a certain model where we try to block out a certain group of numbers just for that special edition and where some non special edition cars with a higher CSM number would be built before the special edition group of CSM numbers.

 

And there are also some other factors that can not be publicly discussed so in the end it is what it is and CSM numbers should be only looked at as a Shelby assigned serial number and never looked at as a build sequence number.

 

Hope this helps some.

 

And............I was fortunate enough having one built whatever the number! Thanks for explaining this in more detail!

RSR