{"id":107644,"date":"2016-07-06T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T20:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=107644"},"modified":"2016-07-06T16:27:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T20:27:50","slug":"first-shelby-cobra-could-set-auction-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2016\/07\/first-shelby-cobra-could-set-auction-record\/","title":{"rendered":"First Shelby Cobra Could Set Auction Record"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Carroll Shelby never let go of the first Cobra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Britain’s AC Cars was already producing its little Cobra model when it shipped a chassis over to the U.S. back in February 1962, modified to take a big American V-8. It was bound for Carroll Shelby, a former Army Air Force pilot, race driver and automotive designer convinced he could beat his European competition at their own game.<\/p>\n

Working out of a small shop in Santa Fe Springs, California, Shelby and his team managed to shoehorn in a 260 cubic-inch engine lifted from a Ford Fairlane. It marked the birth of the legendary Shelby Cobra. In the coming years, Shelby would offer two even bigger engines: Ford\u2019s 289 and 427 cubic-inch V-8s. But until his death in 2012, the legendary Texan entrepreneur kept that first Cobra for himself.<\/p>\n

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Your Auto Insider!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, four years after his death at the age of 89, the original Shelby Cobra, chassis number CSX 2000, is going up for auction, and auction house RM Sotheby\u2019s is predicting it could set an all-time record for an American automobile.<\/p>\n

“Carroll Shelby \u2013 the man, the larger-than-life Texan, and the battle-tested racing veteran \u2013 fired a shot across the bow of every sports car manufacturer in the world and, in doing so, set the car world on fire with the Cobra,” Sotheby’s says in a press release.<\/p>\n

(Aston Martin and Red Bull team up to build what could be the world’s fastest street car. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for more.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The original Shelby Cobra used a 260 ci Ford V-8, later opting for both a 289 and 427.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The original Shelby Cobra will go across the auction block during the annual Pebble Beach Concours d\u2019Elegance next month.<\/p>\n

If it delivers on its expectations, Sotheby\u2019s will beat the record the auction house set just four years ago, when a 1968 Ford GT40 race car commanded a bid of $11 million.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s nowhere near an all-time automotive record, of course. A 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO holds that honor, having gone for $34,650,000 at the Bonham\u2019s Quail Auction \u2013 also held during the Pebble Beach Concours week \u2013 on August 14, 2014. With the buyer\u2019s premium, the figure actually leapt to $38,115,000.<\/p>\n

(All-new Ford GT holds off Ferrari in debut at 2016 Le Mans. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the full story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

American-made cars have never quite caught up with their European rivals, but the Shelby Cobra could give it a good shot.<\/p>\n

What was known as the AC Ace, and then the AC Cobra, was notable for its lightweight design and nimble handling. The chassis was comprised of steel tubing over which aluminum body panels were fitted. But the AC model lacked the sort of powertrain that could make it a real contender.<\/p>\n

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The original Cobra could hit 60 in just over 4 seconds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shelby wrote to the British maker asking if he could get one of the Cobras, sans engine and transmission, and they air-freighted it over to California.<\/p>\n

He had originally hoped to use a Chevrolet V-8, but Chevy didn\u2019t want to set up a competitor for the Corvette, so it said no. Shelby then turned to Ford, the number two maker happy to help take down the \u2018Vette.<\/p>\n

With the Fairlane\u2019s V-8, a modified transmission and a new rear differential in place, the team started road testing, the newly renamed Shelby Cobra turning 0 to 60 times in the low four second range. That was enough, the Texan said, to make it a \u201cCorvette-beater,\u201d something it proved with its first victory at Riverside International Raceway on the second of February, 1963 \u2013 exactly one year to the day after the original Cobra chassis had landed in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Only a relative handful of Shelby Cobras were built back in the 1960s. But in the late 1980s, Shelby American, the entrepreneur\u2019s Las Vegas-based company, rolled out a series of \u201cContinuation Cars,\u201d authorized reproductions with more modern amenities.<\/p>\n

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Shelby got into trouble claiming to produce the rest of the original 100 Cobras using replica parts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shelby was tripped up when, in the early 1990s, he announced plans to finish building the 100 original Cobras using the AC chassis \u2013 production stopping after just 55 were completed. It turned out they were counterfeits, using a platform actually manufactured in California. The scam proved a costly embarrassment.<\/p>\n

But there appears to be no doubt about the authenticity of the car going across the Sotheby\u2019s block. And based on what other Cobras have gone for in recent years, the auction house appears to have reason to believe it\u2019s on the way to setting a new record.<\/p>\n

(Land Rover latest to battle Chinese over car clones.\u00a0<\/em>Click Here<\/a>\u00a0for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four years after the death of the legendary Carroll Shelby, his very first Shelby Cobra is set to go across the auction block and could command a record bid for an American-made car. The story from TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107644"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=107644"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=107644"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=107644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}