Cobra fans were jumping around like excited school kids back in January when Carroll Shelby’s own 427 Cobra went under the hammer at Mecum’s Kissimmee auction.
The restored 1966 car, CSX3178, changed hands for a cool $5.94m – big money, but then what could be better than a Cobra owned by the man who created the legend.
Well, how about Carroll Shelby’s own Cobra Daytona? This 1965 Daytona Coupe, chassis CSX 2469, is up for grabs through auction house Worldwide, though it’s being offered as a private sale, rather than via auction.
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Shelby and designer Peter Brock created the Daytona by grafting a slippery fastback body onto the Cobra chassis to improve its top speed and give it a better chance against rivals like Ferrari, whose 250 GTO was significantly quicker on the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans.
The Daytona takes its name from the famous Florida endurance race where it won its class in 1965. But while it also won at other prestigious venues, including Sebring, Monza and Reims, and even clinched the World Sportscar Championship for Shelby in 1965, the Daytona never did quite manage an outright Le Mans victory.
The one factor that might prevent this particular car’s sale price from going truly stratospheric is that this is not one of the six original Daytonas. It started life as a Cobra roadster and was later re-bodied as a coupe during Shelby’s ownership.
Since then its driver’s seat has been intimate with some of the world’s big motorsport names, including 1961 F1 champion Phil Hill and sports car legends Derek Bell and Brian Redman, at events like Monterey and Goodwood.
How much? Worldwide isn’t saying, but it’s not going to be cheap. Even an average Daytona will set you back $2m, and with this car’s celebrity connection, which includes FIA papers and documentation proving Shelby’s ownership, you can bet it’ll go for far more.
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