Autocars Info Review

The car was purchased new in Connecticut, who would pass it on to White Plains, New York. Its second owner did not keep it long, and in 1971 the car was sold to Ed Jurist’s Vintage Car Store of Nyack, New York. In September of that year the car would change hands again, showing 30,000 miles on the odometer.

 A gentleman named Peter DeSilva of Great Barrington, Mass., acquired the car from the Vintage Car Store, and in 1974 he traded it to his friend Sy Allen. He soon placed the car delicately on stands and locked it up in his barn, where it has slept – out of sight – for 40 years.

http://autoweek.com/article/scottsdale-auctions/1964-shelby-289-cobra-emerges-vermont-barn



Originally sold through Tasca Ford, after Tasca apparently lent it to Car and Driver for the Cobra road test in the magazine’s March 1963 issue, then sold to James Hall of Concord, New Hampshire.

Hall installed a tri-power intake that he bought through Grappone Ford, also in Concord.

According to the World Registry of Cobras and GT40s, Hall then proceeded to lose his license driving the Cobra and sold CSX 2034 the next year to Hallinan, at the time working as a salesman at Grappone, with about 1,000 miles on it. Hallinan only drove it a couple of summers afterward and then put it in storage; at the time Bonhams removed it from storage for last weekend’s Quail Lodge auction, it displayed just 4,700 miles and still wore its Tasca badging, its early AC-Shelby-Cobra badge, and the tri-power intake atop its original 260.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/08/20/unrestored-shelby-cobra-sells-for-2-07-million/

found on http://www.motortrend.com/classic/features/1404_garaj_mahal_craig_jackson_collection/

The fantastic cars? An R code GT 350 Shelby Mustang, a 427  Shelby AC Cobra that Tommy Smothers once owned, the AAR Cuda Dan Gurney raced, a '70 Hemi Cuda Convertible, #68 ZL-1 Camaro, that hadn't ever been tilted or driven on the street, it had 190 racing miles, and the original owner still possessed it, and the Shelby EXP 500  

The Team fondly called the snow white Cobra "Ollie the Dragon"; however, because the 427 had the scary habit of belching about two feet of flame through the intake on the hood. Team Leader Scott laughingly recalled that if you didn't keep throttling up, the big Weber downdraft carburetors would erupt in fire. Dick Thompson still remembers that the "Cobra was beautiful in the straightaway, but because it didn't have much in the way of brakes, it was always hairy in the turns."

The drivers of the Cobra in the 1965 circuit were first-rate and world class. Dr. Dick Thompson, a Washington, D.C. dentist was a semi-pro who drove some of Carroll Shelby's early Cobras. Not long after he was recruited by Skip Scott to drive for Essex, he drove the race at Riverside, California. Ed Lowther was another highly respected semi-pro who drove the Cobra throughout 1965. In the late '50s he drove Corvettes with Dick Thompson on the Gulf Oil team. As he won more races and his reputation grew, Skip Scott recruited him to race the Cobra with Dick Thompson in several key contests. Lowther fondly remembers the calm, professional teaching by Thompson. For Lowther, the formula for success in this Cobra was that everything was stock - no special designs or equipment - and this equipment, including the Essex Wire throughout, held up better than all the specialized gear.

Of course, abusing a car on a road racing track for a few hundred miles results in time on the repair track, even for a car with a racing pedigree as impressive as the Shelby Cobra.

By the end of the 1965 season these drivers had managed to win an overall national Fourth Place for Essex Wire in U.S. road racing competition, a remarkable feat for a team in its first year. Essex chose to move onto the International Grand Prix Circuit for 1966 with the new Ford GT40, abandoning the Cobra. The Essex team Cobra 427 was eventually sold to Ed Lowther, who went on to win numerous races, finishing first at Riverside and Daytona and winning a national championship in 1967. This particular Cobra, known affectionately as "Ollie the Dragon," was, in fact, the winningest Cobra ever made. (info from http://www.cobracountry.com/CCMkt-fotos/CCMkt-diecastcobra7b.html )

Carroll had an AC Cobra upgraded just the way he wanted it, for his own pleasure. Twin supercharged, dual quad, 427 side oiler. 800 HP.

It's going to auctioned. Some fortunate filthy rich guy is going to plop his butt into the car Carroll told his mechanics to assemble, FOR THE BOSS. I think that merits bold typeface. I think that deserves some thought.

The crew knew when they put it together that it wasn't just for a customer, it was for the racing legend, the car building icon, the man who made saved a car (the AC) and put racing into the blood of Ford. I don't mean left hand turns, I mean RACING THE EFFIN BEST ON THE PLANET!

IN THEIR ARENA!

HE WON LEMANS!

Aston Martin DBR1, 1959 https://www.facebook.com/groups/505973489414476/

The only American car to ever win the FIA World Manufacturers Championship for GT cars was the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. http://www.petersen.org/default.cfm?DocID=1014&cat=Shelby&ExhibitID=264&index=4




















http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars-f.htm

I think this deserves a hell of a lot of respect, he may be the greatest.
Andretti is a great driver, never built a car company.
Richard Petty won lots of races as a driver, never designed a damn car.
John Force and Bob Glidden set lots of drag race records. Nothing in the common car model names.
The Sunoco Camaro is synonymous with Roger Penske.

But Shelby developed the GT 40 from a previous similar design and beat the snot out of Ferrari.

Some great circuit racers like Sterling Moss are known in more countries than than Micheal Jordan or Tiger Woods, and doesn't have his name on a single production car anywhere.
Cale Yarborough has his name on a Talledega, and Mark Donahue has his name across the Javelin, now let's be sure to remember those, and not let them be forgotten. That means something, drivers so good their name sold cars because it was written on them.
Even Dale Earndhart had an Impala SS with his name. I'm sure I don't know of some that also were honored on new Impala SS's, or Monte Carlo SS's. I don't follow new NASCAR, my interest ends in the very early 70's when it comes to NASCAR. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Most either are new, or old NASCAR fans, but not both. Thats an entry for another time... this one is for CARROLL"S PERSONAL FREAKING EPITOMIUS COBRA! Never was another made better, equal, but never better.

Now here are the links for more, http://www.wurthitdesigns.com/cobrastory.htm is the 1981 restoration story photographed by the mechanic who brought it back from some body damage and it was missing all the original cool parts that bolted on, the Shelby dual quad intake, Paxton superchargers, etc.

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/carlist/cardetails.asp?In_AuctionID=221&In_LotNumber=1301 is the Auction site's authenticator's breakdown of how we can be sure this is the real Super Snake Cobra of Carroll's. One of only 23 427 Cobra Competition Roadsters built, different from the AC Cobras sold to the public, later in 67 it was transformed into the Super Snake and reclassified as 427 Cobra Semi-Competition.

I find the description a bit confusing, and doesn't make it clear if this guy denies the legitimacy of the 68 Road and Track article, or just specifies why that car pictured is the real deal. I think he should have had someone read over his notes to check it's clarity. Hell, this car is worth around 15 million, a little extra effort isn't amiss.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/carroll-shelby-once-had-special-ac.html#links for the Road and Track article I blogged earlier here on this website.