"Ferrari's ass is mine!" - Carroll Shelby, 1963
After dominating the US racetracks with the Ford powered Cobra roadsters, Carroll Shelby set his sights on the FIA World Championship and unseating the 3x champion Ferrari factory.
Brock hatched one of the most storied race cars of all time, the Daytona Cobra Coupe. With its then-controversial signature shape, accented by a chopped Kamm tail, Brock’s bare aluminum Daytona proved fast right out of the box.
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In the following weeks, the Daytona Coupe set lap records at Daytona, Sebring, Spa-Francorchamps and even Le Mans. And on July 4th 1965, Bob Bondurant would take his Daytona and the checkers at the 12 hours of Reims in France to win the coveted FIA World GT Championship.
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To this day, the Daytona Cobra Coupe and Shelby American still stand as the only American manufacturer and team winners of an FIA Championship.
However they needed an advanced design for greater top-end speed to counter the drag of an open roadster on the long, fast tracks in Europe.
Enter Peter Brock, Shelby’s talented young designer whose interest in aerodynamics yielded an unconventional shape that would allow higher speeds and greater fuel efficiency.
Built on the Cobra roadster’s proven chassis, Shelby test driver Ken Miles shattered the Riverside Raceway lap record (by over 3seconds!) on the Daytona’s first time out, even before his crew had time to adjust tire pressures.
Only six original Daytona Cobra Coupes were produced and auction experts now believe that if any one of those six were to reappear on the open market it would likely fetch upwards of $20 million USD
