Cobra
Cobra
Daytona Coupe
This page is about my most ambitious (or insane) project to date; a one-off replica of a Cobra Daytona Coupe.
Those who are familiar with this car know it is the probably the ultimate Cobra. This is the car that won the World Manufacturers Championship in 1965 having wins at LeMans, Daytona, Sebring, and Goodwood. The Coupe is also among the rarest of the Cobras with only six being produced. The story behind the Coupe is as fascinating as the car itself. For those really interested in the details I recommend Peter Brock's (the designer of the Coupe) book titled "Daytona Cobra Coupes". It describes the design and fabrication process along with competition history. There are hundreds of excellent photographs taken by Dave Friedman who was the Shelby team photographer.
Interesting fact about these cars; Shelby tried to practically give these cars away at the end of the race season in 1966 and nobody was interested! Of course in the 60's there was no such thing as vintage racing.
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CSX2287- The Prototype
This is how the CSX2287 looked recently after being "lost" for many years. The first car built in the Shelby shop in California. The shape was refined in the next five cars. Oddly enough, this car was driven on the street in early 1970's by Phil Spector.
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CSX2299
The first body made in Italy. Evidently there was an error made in the height of the roof, resulting in a more flat roof line. This is also the car that Contemporary Motor cars, now Upstate Replicas made their molds from. |
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CSX2300
My personal favorite. All six cars are slightly different and to me this one came out the best. This car was in Shelby's personal collection for many years. I was fortunate enough to be out on the track at Lime Rock during SAAC-25 with this car. I passed this car on the main straight after drafting a few inches behind the rear spoiler. 3 weeks later the car sold at auction for $ 4 million! |
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CSX2601
Photo taken at the Monterey Historics. |
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CSX2602
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CSX2286-Last Coupe Built
Being driven currently by Rob Walton. Yes, that Rob Walton |
The first question most people ask is why build one from scratch, why not buy an existing replica?
The primary reason is a desire to design and build a car from the ground up. It's just a great challenge. The second is to have a Coupe that has the correct details where it counts. When I first started planning this project, the only replica available was the Contemporary (now Upstate) Coupe. Not a bad looking car, but a few changes were made to make the car producible in fiberglass which detract from some of the original lines. And, this may sound like nit-picking, but the molds for that car were taken from CSX2299 which had a higher and flatter roof line (due to a mistake in fabrication) than the other cars. Since then a couple of more replicas have hit the market but those have even less in common with the original cars. Of course, there are Mike McCluskey's aluminum exact-to-the-last-rivet cars for a mere $260,000. Just a bit out of my price range. :-)
These are links to more detail on the project. As I complete more work I'll update these pages.
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