Shelby recreates Daytona Coupé racer

Published Jul 17, 2015

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By: Dave Abrahams

Las Vegas, Nevada - Shelby American is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its 1965 World Sports Car Championship with a special ‘continuation’ edition of the car that won it - the Cobra Daytona Coupé.

The championship was a considerable achievement, won against the might of the factory Ferraris, and remains the only one ever taken by an American team.

“Shelby fielded six Cobra coupés against the Ferrari juggernaut,” said Shelby American boss Joe Conway, “and clinched the series on 4 July, 1965.

“To celebrate that victory we're building a limited series of anniversary cars that bring the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé back to life.”

Limited is right - just 50 cars, available to order with either an aluminium or a fibreglass body, will be built.

The original Cobra Coupé came about because the iconic Cobra roadster, dominant though it was on tight circuits, couldn't stay with the Ferraris and Porsches on the longer straights of European circuits such as Spa and, in particular, Le Mans.

So Carroll Shelby asked Peter Brock to design a compact, aerodynamic coupé body for the small-block Cobra chassis. The result was a sleek two-door with a Kamm-style tail not unlike that of its nemesis, the Ferrari 250 GTO.

Shelby started working on the first coupé - chassis number CSX2287 - in Los Angeles in 1964, and soon discovered that Brock had given him a winner. Not only could the coupé pull longer gearing than the roadster, giving it a significantly higher top speed, but it was more fuel-efficient, allowing longer runs between pit stops, always an issue with the big-inch American V8s.

Only six of the original aluminium-bodied Cobra Coupés were built, but they won their class at Le Mans that year and took the title outright in 1965.

AUTHENTIC RECREATION

Needless to say, each of the five survivors - one was destroyed in a crash at Laguna Seca in August 2012 - is worth a king's ransom and they rarely come up for sale; hence the anniversary 'revival' model.

Shelby American chief operating officer Keith Belair explained: “We spent the past year planning an aluminium car that was faithful to the six built during the 1960s.

“This is the first time that Shelby has built an authentic aluminium-bodied recreation of the Daytona Coupé.

“In addition, we developed an anniversary edition fibreglass version that's true to the spirit of the Coupé, but re-imagined as if it had remained in production over the years.”

Since each of the hand-built originals was slightly different, the new aluminium coupé has been production-engineered from the original blueprints, using the best features of each car - as if it had been a seventh chassis incorporating all that was learned from the race cars.

From the tubular-steel chassis and leaf-spring suspension to the wood-rimmed steering wheel, each car will be period correct, but with a black leather interior, special badging, modern disc brakes and a stronger frame.

Each will be built to order as a rolling chassis, to be finished by the customer or a Shelby dealer with the engine and transmission of his choice - although a period correct aluminium-block 289 cubic-inch (4735cc) Ford racing V8 and gearbox with an engine number including the chassis number of your car will be available at extra cost from the Shelby Engine Company.

The price of the base aluminum Shelby Daytona Coupé, not including drivetrain, is $349 995 (R4.33 million), while the fibreglass 'continuation' cars start at $179 995 (R2.2 million) without drivetrain.

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