Shelby competing with Ferrari

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

After leaving the competition in 1960, the driver Carroll Shelby began building cars. His ambition was to compete with Ferrari, no less! He managed the development of its models by fitting British AC Cobra chassis with Ford engines.

Ford offered a particularly favorable context to second Shelby's project: the Mustang, created in 1964, needed to increase its dominance and its market share against Chevrolet and Plymouth.

Only six copies of the 1965 Daytona Cobra Coupe were built. This model is the most prestigious of Shelby. One of them came in an auction organized by Mecum on May 15 in Indianapolis.

A new press release indicates that this car has not been sold, but that an after-sale offer was made at $ 7.5 million. It was not enough. On the occasion of the very large sessions of auctions of mid-August, Mecum presents this vehicle again, on August 15 in Monterey.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This morning, the auction house is rightly proud to announce that their Cobra broke the auction record for an American car: $ 7.25 million. Releases prior to the sale had correctly shown that this was an exceptional lot.

I think that this price does not include fees. I will check with the post-sales press release. This would be consistent with the information that I indicated in my article saying that a proposal to $ 7.5 million had been refused.