Autocars Info Review

Fiberfab Centurion I believe







the golden age

images from https://www.flickr.com/photos/thehenryford/with/7209024068

owned by Mike McClusky, who is famous for his restoration of 3 of the 6 original Shelby Daytona Coupes, and for being the go-to when Carroll wanted some continuation cars made, as the price of the originals is over 7 million a piece

Only 6 units of the Cobra Daytona have been built by Shelby. The rarity of the car combined with the myth the car became winning the world championship ahead of the Ferrari 250 GTO, explains the price of the car today. For those who dream to own a Cobra Daytona and race it in the historic events, Shelby has allowed the building of 21 Cobra Daytona built by McCluskey. Caroll Shelby himself approached McCluskey when he decided to have a new team racing in vintage events with 5 Cobra Daytona continuation (the original ones having reached incredible prices). McCluskey has first built continuation Cobra Daytonas on original 289 Roadster chassis. He then built entire cars from scratch. These cars are fully compliant with the original specifications, the Shelby Registry confirming that "the continuation coupes are exact in their construction, right down to the number of rivets used".  http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/56338/index.html

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 )

1968 Shelby GT 500 KR, Nascar tunnel ram 427 side oiler. Only 900 miles on it since 1970... think investment. 13.5 to 1 compression, think 115 octane or better, expensive to get even 900 miles along.

With probably 6 or 7 miles per gallon on this dual quad gas pump, a 20 gallon tank, and around 8 bucks a gallon, I think it may be close to guess that they've only burned up about 1200 bucks in gas in 37 years. Thats 900 miles in 37 years = 24 miles a year = 4 gallons of fuel a year.