Posted on 08/22/2017 4:58:02 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Shelby American will build six aluminum continuation big-block Daytona Coupes to the original specifications of the car that could have dominated Le Mans.
In 1964, Carroll Shelby and his crew built a one-off Daytona Coupe powered by a big-block V8, with the sole purpose of beating Ferrari at Le Mans. That car, CSX2286, promised great things, but it was damaged on the way to France, taking it out of the race before it began. Afterward, CSX2286 was converted back to its original 289 small-block configuration, like the rest of the Daytona Coupe fleet. For decades, there were no official big-block Daytona Coupes in existence. At least, not until now.
Shelby American has announced plans to build six Daytona Coupes with 427-cubic-inch big block engines as part of an official continuation series. The company brought the first of six, CSX2603, to the Rolex Motorsports Reunion at Monterey this past weekend, where it made its public debut.
The first new big-block Daytona Coupe wears bare aluminum bodywork with white stripes and the number four, just like the original that never made it to Le Mans. Shelby will paint your big-block Daytona in any racing livery you want, though.
(Excerpt) Read more at roadandtrack.com ...
I knew guys with 442’s, Cutlasses, shoot one guy in the town had a 69 Mach 1 or Fastback (can’t remember) with 390 - he wanted $1500 - it was good shape.
A few years later met a guy working at a gas station driving a 1970 Boss 302 4-speed - no shaker or stripes though. He wanted $3000 which was probably $2000 or $2500 more money than I had (was still making payments on my 78 Trans Am).
A couple months later saw him and asked about the car - he slid it into a telephone pole in the rain - sideways - and bent the unibody.
If it had a 326 it was likely a Tempest re-badged as a GTO since GTO’s came with 389, 400 and then 455 as the years passed.
I wonder which 427 they will use. Contemporary big block 427 Ford engines came in multiple configurations with low, medium and high rider versions plus the famous cammer. Probably will use a modern engine with bore and stroke dimensions to get to 427.
I don't know about 427's. I don't think one would fit in my Citroen. Just kidding, I would never own a Citroen.
These non-prod cars are the stuff of motor-head fantasy. I will never be that well-to-do. No one can recreate motoring history like the CS shop.
If that was the case, it was a masterful job. Based on what you’re saying, I’d have to say it had a 326 dropped into an original GTO. There way way too much OEM work on that thing to have gotten a re-badging - the hood, the stripes, the posi rear, the interior. It may have blown the engine and someone stabbed the most convenient mouse motor into it. I also remember him saying it had a quarter street cam in it. Sounded like a drowning hog at idle, but God coming home for dinner early after you got the tach up past 2.5K.
I’m hip to front ends taking a nap on you. I had a ‘72 Chevelle with a 327, 700 CFM Q-Jet, custom headers and glass packs, posi rear, lift kit, all the niceties. Flogging the gas pedal would rattle every window within fifty yards. It could smoke a hundred miles of tread out of the hole, but the steering linkage was so sloppy, you only dared corking off on a straightaway. Dropped a tie rod once going eighty - that was fun. Idler arm ate a bushing once and I felt like I was trying to steer a bull in heat. After three complete front end rebuilds, I got rid of it. It was eating me alive. Corn chips and beer for dinner got a bit old after paying the garage two weeks’ pay so many times.
If I could have any car on earth, this would be it - one of the new ones.....
Next door bbq and beer drinking buddy had a jet boat with a If I remember correctly a 454 Olds. 2 seats, no windscreen, extremely hot crome exhaust about 2 feet behind your head. Sunrise on some northern Ca reservoir, not a ripple on the water and just floored it. Woke every camper for miles. I have no idea how fast we were going and I don’t think I ever want to know.
One time we almost hit a deer swimming between shores. Just flashed by antlers and all.
Just one of those moments engraved in your brain.
Sheer adrenaline rush before breakfast.
Brother just finished building a 427 Cobra kit car. From Canada I think. Fired it up got some small distance and it swallowed a paper filter that shouldn’t have been there.
Required a complete engine rebuild. Expeensive!
They are a blast (young man’s blast!). When I was young and dumb I used to water-ski behind boats like you describe. Never anything record breaking but I was clocked one time at 78mph...on a friggin ski!
Those were the days.
My first car was a 1968 442. It had been my mom's car. Mom liked it, but gave it to me when she wanted a new car. She got a Buick Regal.
What you say is certainly possible but bottom line is the impression it made on you and the pure thrill in potentially owning America’s first muscle car! I’ve been fortunate enough to own several myself and now, 52 years later I find myself reminiscing about times gone by and the cool cars that were a part of those times.
Looks like a modified Kirkham Daytona body.
Kirkham does great work.
Someday perhaps...
"Shelby American Is Building the 427 Daytona Coupe Carroll Never Got to Race"
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