A 1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe that was owned by Carroll Shelby, and driven by a number of racing legends, is being offered for direct sale by The Salon at Worldwide Auctioneers in Auburn, Indiana.
The Daytona Coupe, CSX 2469, was purchased by the current owner directly from Carroll Shelby, who had commissioned the car built by Shelby American in 1965 with a McCluskey Daytona Coupe body. The Daytona is fully documented and listed in the Shelby Registry, according to Worldwide.
The car has notched a number of vintage-racing victories, including those at Laguna Seca in California and Goodwood in the UK.
The Shelby counts among the champion race drivers who have been behind its steering wheel: Phil Hill, Derek Hill, Derek Bell, Danny Sullivan, John Morton and Brian Redman.
The iconic Daytona Coupe was originally designed by a young Peter Brock for the Shelby/Ford racing team to compete in 1964 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The highly aerodynamic body was designed to raise top speed for the Cobras, a design that was mocked by some on the Shelby team who thought the back end looked too weird, until it proved its worth on the track in endurance competition.
The Daytona name was applied to the coupe in recognition of its victory in the Florida 12-hour race in one of its first outings. It remains the only American-made car to win the World Manufacturer’s Championship for Grand Touring Racecars.
Cobras that once belonged to Carroll Shelby have been in the news as of late. A 1965 Cobra 427 roadster that he owned from new until his death in 2012, sold for a stunning $5.94 million in January during Mecum Auctions’ Kissimmee sale in Florida.
Barrett-Jackson has announced that it would auction the sole-remaining Super Snake, a 427 Cobra roadster boosted with a pair of superchargers that was owned and driven by Shelby, at its Scottsdale auction in March.
The Super Snake was sold twice before at Barrett-Jackson, once for $5.5 million and again for $5.1 million.
This Cobra Daytona is not from the first batch of six coupes that beat Ferrari at Le Mans in the GT class, before Shelby and Ford moved on to the GT40s and their historic victories overall at Le Mans, but it is still a significant Shelby American-built race car.
As an original Daytona coupe built in period for Shelby’s personal ownership, and with a history of vintage-racing victories at the hands of champion drivers, it could easily soar into the multi millions.
For more information, visit the Worldwide website.
Believe the coupes were powered by a 289 Windsor block?
The auction company has not said what engine is in this car. You are correct that the original 6 race cars readied to take on the Ferrari GTO at Le Mans had competition 289s under their hoods. I removed reference to the 427.
Reminds me of a comment I heard at a Mecum auction. One of the Mecum guys was talking about some of the crazy ASKING prices and reserve numbers on American muscle. He said anyone buying now (this was just prior to Covid, in late 2019) as an investment was crazy. His belief was that our current “senior generation” had both money to spend and nostalgic ties to these cars, and that as we “aged out” demand would start slipping. He specifically mentioned that significant cars like any of Shelby’s cars would hold value but in 10 years “a ’69 396 Chevelle will be worth half of what they sell for today”; the later GenX’ers and Millennials won’t care about the “carb generation” cars that can’t do 140mph in the quarter mile. A few weeks later I passed on a 440 Road Runner that was well done but nothing special yet the seller wanted crazy money.
Not sure you can argue that point. My son really likes my cars (especially my ’63 TBird, not exactly my most valuable piece) but he doesn’t LOVE them. And while he’d come to Cars & Coffee events, he got bored fairly quickly.
Awesome!
To me the English built Willment Coupe is the one to own!
The team colors were Red & White and the car was campaigned in South Africa many years past the Shelby Coupes racing days.
It set a 170 mph run at an airport with more left to go but ran out of road.
🙂