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.
I would be happy if my Mustang is worth the sum of its parts.
I'd like to find a '69-72 Corvette for my next project, but I'm afraid they'll be too expensive.
And the guy who bought it after Cosby turned it back in wound up driving it over a cliff.....totalling both the car and himself!
pictures?
Is it a side oiler too? (I'd be surprised if it wasn't)
Yes, all of the actual 427s used by Shelby had side-oiler blocks (per the book Shelby's Wildlife. There were, or course, some big-block Cobras with 428s, which were top-oiler designs. You know that Shelby's personal car got all the top-shelf parts.
Thanks for the pictures.
We literally found this one in a barn...the owner kept his Dodge truck in the garage, and the Vette in with the critters and cobwebs (go figure). 18K miles, inspection sticker dated 1974...hadn't been driven in 30 years. The car could have sold as is for a song, but hubby wants the "challenge" of doing the car to NCRS standards.
The photo shows an automatic though.
FWIW, Shelby lived near me when I was a kind in the 60's. The Cobra was assembled a few miles away at LAX, so they were common in the area. He built a 289 cu. in. Cobra for his wife that you's see around town. Kind of odd to hear an auto shifting in a world of manual trans Cobras.
I watched most of the auction. My favorite car sold on Tuesday night. The Shelby GT500 that went for 175,000. What a beauty. My hubby is a camaro nut. We have a 68. I am in the market for a 70 Challenger. Doesn't have to be a Hemi. I'm not into the big buck cars. I want a driver. I don't want to own a car I can't enjoy. They were not made to be parked. Although hubbies has been parked since 93.
{|:-)~~~
*slap*
(not gonna be nice to you no mo')
no mo?? WhadImiss? :-)
It's on a rotisserie right now...not worthy of photos yet!
Speaking of Cobras, does anyone know what became of the Cobra Daytona Coupe that surfaced after having been stored in a California self-storage warehouse unit for 15+ years?
Must not be the same car. The one this article is about has a 3-speed automatic transmission.
So is my 328i. Funny though, it's a "minus" when doing a used car pricing on edwards or NADA. I guess I shoulda got Black, but metallic Blue isn't so bad.
"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."
The fire extinguisher had emptied itself all over the inside of the car.
And I couldn't tell him (the mechanic, BOB, you know it said it right there on his shirt), I couldn't tell him that I had gone along with the fire extinguisher.
And then don't forget his doorbell.
You press the button, and then it goes, "SOMEBODY'S AT THE DOOR!"
I'll hijack the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, and Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy
this sure is nice:
http://www.fastestcar.com/index.php?13103191276
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