Posted on 01/22/2007 8:09:54 AM PST by presidio9
An 800-horsepower Shelby Cobra, once the personal car of the racing veteran who developed the iconic vehicle, has sold for $5.5 million at auction, a record for an American car. ADVERTISEMENT
The sale of the 1966 Shelby Cobra "Super Snake" brought a packed house to its feet Saturday at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction after a pair of bidders drove the price up.
Carroll Shelby, 84, who created the Cobra in the '60s using Ford engines and a British sport car chassis, said he built the Super Snake -- with twin superchargers on a 427 cubic inch V-8 -- and drove it for years.
"It's a special car. It would do just over three seconds to 60 (mph), 40 years ago," Shelby told the crowd before the sale.
"I killed a buzzard with it," he said. "Nasty, nasty."
The car had a twin, built for comedian Bill Cosby, but that car was destroyed in an accident while being driven by another owner, according to the Barrett-Jackson Web site.
Barrett-Jackson said the $5.5 million price tag for the Cobra was not an overall world record car price; others have sold at auction for more than $11 million. However, it is a world record for American cars, said Steve Davis, Barrett-Jackson president.
The winning bidder was car collector Ron Pratt of suburban Chandler. Last year, he paid $4.32 million for the Futureliner, one of 12 futuristic buses used for shows in the 1940s and '50s by General Motors.
It had PIPESSSS! PIIIPESSSS EVERYWHERE!!!! :)
Had Cosby not taken a shot at George Wallace at the end of the "200 M.P.H." routine, this would have gone down as one of his biggest albums ever, like Wonderfulness or Revenge. I got the feeling that, in hindsight, he wished that he hadn't ended the routine that way. He never struck me as someone who liked to take pot shots at actual living people.
All that aside, I consider "200 M.P.H. Car" to be in his top ten routines of all time. Not to mention that it's 23 minutes long.
I would so love to drive one of these cross-country.
Cobra ping
That color wouldn't be my choice either.
I missed the entire Barrett-Jackson aucion this year due to the Midwest Ice Storm (no power or cable).
Sigh. It's one of the few programs I make a point to watch during the year. Last year, I only missed 15 minutes of the entire live coverage. I hope SpeedTV replays it all, including the first couple of days.
The funny thing is that my beemer is almost that color (a little less "electric") and it looks ok. I guess you can have over the top styling or an over the top color, but not both.
Its amazing how at these auctions in the past, it was the foreign sports cars and exotics that would be the highest bid cars.
Now its all about american muscle. Corvettes, Barracudas, mustangs, camaros, shelbys, hotrods, etc....
Bill Cosby's standup "200 mph" is about the twin of this car. It scared him to death.
It had PIPESSSS! PIIIPESSSS EVERYWHERE!!!! :)
I knew that routine by heart as a teenager, still know most of it. I think regardless of the Wallace remark, (I thought it was perfect) it will always be my favorite. I still have the album.
Click on the link. At the bottom of the story is a link to the BJ auction page.
(heh heh... "BJ auction...")
Thanks. I'd like to watch the replays without knowing the final selling prices, though. Kinda fun to guess then see how close I am.
Why? Are you in the market for a $5mm car?
I have the album (first side only) on my PC, and was just skimming through it for fun. I've always loved the routine.
My scarf was limp.
My hair was straight up on my head.
My Italian racing shoes had turned into sneakers.
Ladies and gentlemen, I was idling.
I was IDLING!
The car had not moved.
I had not put my foot on the gas pedal, and it was killing people.
This years one was kind of boring. There was only a few cars that really got me excited.
It seemed there was more cars being pushed by celebrities this time that kind of took away from the whole thing. Many of them being recently built or customized hotrods that you can aquire quite easily from aftermarket customizers like Foose.
No, but I am a car collector/builder.
I'm doing a '67 Mustang now. I like the Tuesday and Wednesday auctions that have less expensive cars.
Thanks for digging that up. . . B-J is bigger than the Super Bowl in my household and my husband and his buddies were going to go on a hunt for this car to fix it!
You've got to get side one, it is awesome as well...
I'm doing a '67 Mustang now. I like the Tuesday and Wednesday auctions that have less expensive cars.
. . . and "the little people" can afford them. We're doing a 1970 LT1 Corvette to NCRS - hoping to be at B-J in the next 2 years with it.
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