By Peter Brock
From the VeloceToday Archives
As soon as the first Daytona Cobra Coupe, CSX 2287, was completed and tested successfully at Riverside Raceway on February 1st 1964, Carroll Shelby decided to
Peter Brock cobra
Peter Brock: Building the Daytona Coupes in Modena
Fifty years on, Peter Brock poses with a photo of Peter Brock and the prototype Daytona. Our story deals with the first of five Coupes built in Modena. Courtesy Peter Brock collection.
By Peter Brock
As soon as the first Daytona Cobra Coupe, CSX 2287, was completed and tested successfully at Riverside Raceway on February 1st 1964, Carroll Shelby decided to build five more. He felt he had a score to settle with Enzo Ferrari and finally had the weapon to do it. The Daytona’s radical design had been so controversial within the Shelby organization that most of those employed there figured Shelby’s plan to race in Europe against Ferrari would evaporate as soon as the first Coupe was tested and found to be a failure. That resistant attitude changed dramatically as soon as test driver Ken Miles called from Riverside trackside to inform Shelby that he’d shattered the track’s lap record by 3.5 seconds!
Brock on the Goodwood grid with five of the six Daytona Cobra Coupes. Jonathan Sharp photo.