Chassis History of the Six Daytona Coupes by Pete Brock

By Peter Brock

Brock updates the history of the Daytona Cobra Coupes for VeloceToday

Carroll Shelby built only six Daytona Cobra Coupes to contest the World Manufacturers Championship in 1964 and 1965. Its controversial body design was created by Shelby’s Director of Special Projects, Peter Brock. The first Shelby Daytona Coupe was built completely at the Shelby American race shop in Venice, California. The remaining five were partially-built (chassis) at Shelby’s but then were flown to Italy to have Carrozzeria Gransport in Modena build the bodies. A seventh semi-related car, the 427 “Type 65” Shelby Daytona Super Coupe # CSB3054, built on the later Ford designed MK II chassis, was planned to run in the Prototype Class in 1965. When the GT40 program was awarded to Shelby for 1965, the Cobra program was terminated, so the Type 65 was never officially completed by Shelby and is not included herein.

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Chassis #CSX2287 was the prototype Cobra Daytona Coupe. It is the only coupe (chassis/body) that was built entirely at the Shelby American race shop in Venice, California. It has an extensive race history (7 races), competing at Daytona, Sebring, Reims, Spa Francorchamps, Oulton Park TT, Le Mans and Tour de France. It was driven by Chris Amon, Dave MacDonald, Bob Holbert, Jo Schlesser, Phil Hill, Jochen Neerpasch, Innes Ireland, André Simon, Maurice Dupeyron, Bob Johnson and Tom Payne.

Chassis CSX2287 won the GT race at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March 1964, with MacDonald and Holbert behind the wheel. The race at Sebring was the first time that a Cobra Daytona Coupe won the GT III category in an FIA race. It was an important win for Shelby as it convinced Ford to back Shelby’s dream of racing the Cobras in Europe against Ferrari. In 1964, the car was finished in Viking Blue metallic with two thin white racing stripes added for Le Mans. It also had very distinctive white painted front fenders for easier pit and scoring recognition. The drivers were Chris Amon and Jochen Neerpasch. They led the GT class until the car was disqualified in the 10th hour for an illegal jump start due to battery and alternator failure. Running second, Bob Bondurant and Dan Gurney swept into the lead in CSX 2299 and won the GT class, putting Shelby in the lead for the GT Championship.

CSX2287 ended its racing career by setting 25 USAC/FIA world records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, in November 1965. Craig Breedlove, Bobby Tatroe and Tom Greatorex drove the car during a Goodyear tire testing session.

After Bonneville, CSX2287 was refurbished and sold to slot car magnate Jim Russell who used it to promote his model of the car by driving it to slot car shops around the country. He drove it on the street for two years, keeping it in pristine condition to promote his models. He then sold the car to music producer Phil Spector to finance his two daughters’ college education..

Spector was known to drive it on the streets of Los Angeles. Built for high-speed endurance racing, the cab became uncomfortably warm as the car’s engine heated up. “It wasn’t a street car; it was a race car”, Shelby said. Still, Spector drove it on the streets, and legend is that Spector racked up so many speeding tickets his lawyer advised him to get rid of the car before he lost his license. This car was featured in “The Monkees” episode, “The Monkees Race Again” (aka “Leave the Driving to Us”), originally aired on February 12, 1968.

All trace of CSX2287 was lost by the mid-1970s, with car historians and collectors fearing the car had been destroyed. In 2001 the car was rediscovered in a rental storage unit in California. Its owner, Donna O’Hara, had committed suicide by burning herself alive. Due to its estimated worth of over $4,000,000, the car was part of an extensive legal battle between O’Hara’s mother, who sold the car to a collector in Pennsylvania, and a friend of O’Hara who was the recipient in her will of the contents of the storage unit.

It is the only Daytona Coupe that has not been restored. It has been preserved “as found” and mechanically reconditioned. It is part of the permanent collection at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

In January 2014, CSX2287 became the first vehicle added to the Historic Vehicle Association’s National Historic Vehicle Registry. Concurrently it became the first automobile to be recorded under the United States Secretary of the Interior Standards for Heritage Documentation, kept on file in the Library of Congress. In November 2014, CSX2287 won the International Historic Motoring Awards “Car of the Year”, an honor voted on by the public. In addition to being the first American car to win the award, the Cobra Daytona Coupe is also the first American car nominated for this award.

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CSX2299 was the second Coupe completed and the first to have its body constructed at Carrozzeria Gransport. It competed in nine FIA races (LeMans, Reims, Goodwood Tourist Trophy, Tour de France, Daytona, Sebring, Oulton Park TT, LeMans, Enna), won four FIA events (LeMans ’64, Tourist Trophy ’64, Daytona ’65, Sebring ’65) and one stage during the Tour de France (Rouen). The car was driven through this period by Dan Gurney, Bob Bondurant, Maurice Trintignant, Bernard de St. Auban, Jo Schlesser, Hal Keck, Jack Sears and Dick Thompson. At LeMans in 1964, drivers Gurney and Bondurant, clocking over 196 miles per hour (315 km/h) on the Mulsanne Straight, took First Place in the GT III Class.

In 1964, CSX2299 was painted Viking Blue with two white stripes and in 1965, for Daytona, was repainted Guardsman Blue with two larger longitudinal white stripes and a transverse white stripe across the front left fender. In 1964, this car set lap records at Le Mans, Reims and Rouen and the race distance record at Le Mans and Goodwood. In 1965, the car set the lap record at Oulton Park.

CSX2299 was the last Daytona coupe sold by Shelby with a Bill of Sale which read “the number one Cobra Daytona coupe”. It is currently owned by Larry H. Miller Group and resides at the Miller Motorsports Park museum in Tooele, Utah.

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In 1965, CSX2300 was leased from Alan Mann Racing in the UK by Ford of France, to race as the national “Tri-Colore” entry in the Nurburgring 1000 km race. The body was painted white with blue and red center stripes. Well known French drivers André Simon and Jo Schlesser drove this coupe to 3rd in the GT 3 category (behind the GT winning Alan Mann Racing entry driven by Bondurant and Neerpasch), finishing 12th overall. After the race, CSX2300 was returned to Alan Mann Racing and repainted in the official Ford colors of Guardsman Blue metallic with white stripes of the 1965 Shelby American team. After being returned to America, it went through several owners before it was finally sold by RM Auctions for $4.4 million on August 19, 2000. CSX 2300 is currently (2015) owned by Daniela Ellerbrock of Germany.

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CSX2601 was the fourth Coupe built and the third completed at Carrozzeria Gransport. It competed in eight FIA races in 1965 (Daytona, Sebring, Monza, Spa, Nurburgring, LeMans, Reims, Enna), won four times in GT III class (Monza, Nurburgring, Reims, Enna), and was driven by Bob Johnson, Tom Payne, Bob Bondurant, Allen Grant, Jochen Neerpasch and Jo Schlesser.

At Reims, the car, painted Guardsman Blue, was driven by Bondurant and Schlesser. They won the GT III Class while also earning the points needed to secure the 1965 World Sportscar Championship (named, at that time, the International Championship for GT Manufacturers).

CSX2601 was featured in the 1965 film Red Line 7000, then was purchased by its driver Bob Bondurant. It in 2009 for $7.25 million. It is currently owned by the Perez Companc family from Argentina.

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CSX2602 was the fifth Shelby Coupe built and the fourth completed at Carrozzeria Gransport. It competed in six 1965 races (Daytona, Sebring, Monza, Spa , Nurburgring and Le Mans) and was driven by Rick Muther, John Timanus, Lew Spencer, Jim Adams, Phil Hill, Jack Sears, John Whitmore, Peter Sutcliffe and Peter Harper. Prior to the Le Mans race, chassis CSX 2602 was also raced at Daytona (driven by Muther and Timanus) in 1965, Sebring (driven by Spencer, Adams, and Hill) in 1965, Monza (driven by Sears and Whitmore) in 1965, and Nurburgring (driven by Sears and Gardner) also in 1965.

At Le Mans, June 19-20, 1965, British drivers Sutcliffe and Harper ran CSX2602 with the distinctive Red & White Swiss colors of the Swiss racing team “Scuderia Filipinetti”. When Ford used up its allotment of entries for the 1965 Le Mans race, the company asked team owner Georges Filipinetti to take a Shelby Coupe from Alan Mann Racing and race it as his own annual entry. The red and white Cobra ran until the 10th hour, when a blown head gasket put it out of the race. After Le Mans, chassis CSX2602 was returned to Alan Mann Racing. It was repainted in the Shelby American team colors and never raced again. It is currently owned by Kazuo Maruyama of Tokyo and won the GT Class at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2015.

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Chassis CSX2286 and CSX2287 arrived at Shelby’s on the same date. Since there was no concern about serial numbers at that time, CSX 2287 was selected to become the first coupe built. CSX2286 was actually the last coupe built as the chassis was used as a template for the next four chassis delivered to Shelby’s. Because it was built up alongside CSX2287, each detail created on CSX2287 was added to CSX2286, and when completed it was kept in the shop until all the other chassis were completed. Once those were done, the team decided to use CSX2286 as a 390 CID alloy-engined prototype to run at the 1964 Monza finale. The chassis was lengthened 3” at Shelby’s to accommodate the larger engine and was thus the last chassis sent to Modena for its body. There it was almost completed when word came that Monza had been “cancelled”! (The race actually took place but Enzo Ferrari prevailed upon the Auto Club d’Italia to eliminate the FIA sanction so no points could be earned by the winning car.) Ferrari held a slight points lead prior to Monza and knew his GTOs were not fast enough to win, so he pressured the officials to have the race “cancelled”. With no points to be gained, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Ford and Cobra all elected not to participate. Ferrari “won” leaving Enzo with the most GT points for ’64 and thus “won” the Championship. He then formally announced that Ferrari would not contest the ’65 season “as he felt it unfair to race against his own customers, etc.”

CSX2286 was flown back to California and the chassis was shortened back to its original FIA legal GT wheelbase (90”) and a 289 reinstalled. As a result of this extra work, it only ran one FIA GT race in its history: Le Mans in 1965 with Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant who led the GT class until the 15th hour and then DNF’d with clutch failure. Ford/Shelby had entered 12 cars and Ferrari entered 11 works cars. All the Ford-engined cars except one, CSX 2602 (Jack Sears/Dick Thompson) DNF’d . All 11 works Ferraris also DNF’d! Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt (with Ed Hugus) won the GT class in an NART privateer Ferrari. CSX2286 was finally returned to America and was eventually acquired by Rob Walton. He is the only owner to race a real Daytona Coupe in vintage events. Walton crashed it at T5 at Laguna Seca in 2012, the result of brake lock, not driver error. Without steering control he hit the wall. The car was repaired and ran at Goodwood 2015.

Read how five Cobra Daytona coupes were built in Enzo Ferrari’s back yard!