Shark Racing Shells Bodies
Shark Racing Shells, produced by Squires Enterprises, likely began offering product in early 1964 and built up their product line very quickly. Even magazine review writers made note of how quickly Squires produced new bodies. Notice how the September 1964 Shark Racing Shells review in MC&T (below left) includes a new 1965 Ford Mustang body, and how the copy writer in the January 1965 MC&T review of a new Shark Maserati 5 Litre GT (below right) indicates most manufacturers take up to a year to produce a body, but that Squires did this in just a couple of months.
Shark Racing Shells was clearly a successful brand name seller, successful enough to have as other slot car manufacturers sometimes did in the mid 60's, become involved in an exclusive sales contract with distributorship: Robert Coogan & Associates. RC&A promptly developed an obscure logo using a line drawing of what appears to be a shark and a Maltese Cross on a shield (Maltese Crosses were something of a fad in the mid 60's), and the brand name "Shark" in an overly dramatic font.
There was one, and only one ad in the April 1966 issue of Car Model using this strange new motif (it even appears in the list of advertisers in that issue as "Coogan Associates", not Shark Racing Shells).
So much for exclusive sales contracts with distributorships. Perhaps Shark Racing Shells would have done better if they had just stuck to publishing prominent photos of the extensive product line, as there are strangely few published photos of Shark bodies.
Here are some scans of magazine ads and reviews:
