Shelby 427 Competition Cobra, 1965
Shelby Cobra III Superformance
Shelby Cobra III Superformance•
•6 مشاهدة
Chassis No.: CSX3006
- Exterior: Blue
- Interior: Black
- 1 of 23 original factory 427 Competition Cobras produced
- Retains its original aluminum body and chassis
- Campaigned throughout Europe in 1966 by The Chequered Flag of London, England
- Raced by three Formula 1 drivers: Chris Irwin, David Piper and Bob Bondurant
- Competed in a 1966 FIA World Sports Car Championship race in Zeltweg, Austria
- Shown at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, 2014 Concorso Villa D’Este, the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed and the 2022 Amelia Island event
- Significant ownership history, including Michael Shoen, Steven Juliano, George Stauffer, Chris Cox, Jim Spiro, Larry Bowman and Gary Bartlett
- Extensive restoration performed by Legendary Motorcar Company back to original specifications
- Featured on the Dream Car Garage television show
The stuff of legends and requiring little, if any, introduction, Carroll Shelby’s thundering Cobra was rooted in the brilliant racing career and boundless drive of its creator and helped propel Ford Motor Company’s “Total Performance” corporate racing program into dominance over archrival Ferrari at Le Mans during the 1960s. This factory-built Competition 427 Cobra, CSX3006, won 1st Overall at the 1966 Ilford Films 500 at Brands Hatch, which was the only significant European victory for a production Shelby 427 Cobra. While the Ford V-8-powered, AC Ace-derived Cobra was brutally quick with small-block 289 power and soon won virtually everywhere it appeared—including at the U.S.
Manufacturer’s Championship three years running (1963, 1964 and 1965)—aerodynamics limited its future. Sleek Daytona Coupe bodywork designed by Peter Brock was an answer, earning Shelby American Inc. the 1965 FIA World Manufacturer’s Championship—a first for an American racing team. Although the 289-powered Cobra was proven and immensely successful, even more power was needed to stay competitive. Ken Miles correctly surmised an even bigger engine might work within Cobra’s confines, and while Shelby was initially promised a new aluminum-block version of Ford’s 390 CI FE engine, internal resistance from the NASCAR faction within Ford forced a switch to the heavier cast-iron 427.
Although reliable at 500 HP and beyond, its added weight dictated a complete redesign of the Cobra’s chassis, with the update measuring 5 inches wider and sporting huge rear fender flares, massive tires and new coil-spring underpinnings. The brutal 427 Cobra utterly dominated the SCCA A-Production class, unceremoniously putting Corvettes onto their trailers with cold efficiency. Usually sweeping the podium wherever they entered, 427 Cobras were piloted by the era’s top drivers and figured prominently at the ARRC or American Road Race of Champions.
In particular, Dick Smith of Fresno, California, took three consecutive A-Production ARRC titles (1965, 1966 and 1967) in his 427 Cobra and even set the mark for the fastest production sports car at the 1967 Daytona ARRC at a blistering 198.047 MPH. While other cars were put out to pasture, Cobras continued winning races in America well into the 1970s before they were fully recognized as collectibles.
Shelby’s big-block cars were never mass-produced, with just over 300 built, including competition, street and the final “SC” Semi-Competition cars that were initially intended as factory-built racing cars but repurposed after Shelby failed to meet the FIA 100-car production requirement for international racing. In all forms, the 427 Cobras were, and remain, mighty performers with fascinating histories, carefully tracked and documented through the tireless efforts of owners, enthusiasts and especially the registrars of the Shelby American Automobile Club (SAAC). Serial No.
CSX3006, this 1965 Shelby 427 Cobra is an early production, factory-built competition car, one of just 23 produced according to the World Registry of Cobras & GT40s. Early details are fully known, with the Cobra ordered by William G. Freeman of Muncie, Indiana, on January 25, 1965, with Freeman requesting a special Metallic Blue paint finish, just a shade lighter than the Shelby team cars, accented by gold Le Mans stripes. A shoulder harness was also specified, and Freeman elected to pick up the Cobra himself at Shelby’s Hi-Performance Motors dealership in Los Angeles.
Citing period photos, SAAC also reports that CSX3006 was equipped with FIA Cobra-spec Halibrand wheels and without the usual “Cobra” nose emblem. Freeman is understood to have entered two races with CSX3006, landing a creditable fourth-place finish at the Lynndale Farms SCCA Regional on September 6, 1965, before receiving a contract offer to race in Europe, prompting the Cobra’s offering for sale. It was purchased from Freeman by a USAF officer stationed in France, passing in the summer of 1966 to the Chequered Flag of London, UK, where the car was race-prepped, including conversion to right-hand drive and a unique repaint in white with a contrasting matte black hood and cowl.
The Cobra entered several races in 1966 at venues, including Goodwood and Brands Hatch that May, followed by a return to Brands that August with driver Chris Irwin, who had just made his Grand Prix debut with Brabham the previous month. Of its race outings, the May 8 Ilford Films 500 held at Brands Hatch was the finest hour for CSX3006, when the open roadster was co-driven by noted F1 and sports car racers David Piper and Bob Bondurant to victory by a wide margin over the Ford GT40 of Peter Sutcliffe and Eric Liddell in a challenging, rain-soaked race. An October 1966 FIA World Sports Car Championship race at Zeltweg, Austria, would be the last front-line outing for CSX3006.
The Chequered Flag eventually sold CSX3006 in June 1969 to Edwin Butterworth, who only raced the Cobra twice and reportedly kept the car at his friend John Carden’s Cheshire, UK, garage to conceal ownership of the ferocious Cobra from his parents. By 1973, the investment value of a “real” competition Cobra was abundantly clear, prompting Carden to purchase CSX3006 and the principals of the Chequered Flag to repurchase it late in 1977, and then later sell the car to Michael Shoen, the American Cobra enthusiast who wrote the definitive “Cobra-Ferrari Wars 1963-1965” book.
The subsequent history of CSX3006 is much like that of Shelby’s rarest and most collectible cars, including a succession of noted owners and collectors. Among them were Steven Juliano and George Stauffer in the late 1980s, followed by David Livingston, who had the Cobra race-prepared at California’s Dralle Engineering and drove it to 1st Overall (Group 8) at the November 1990 Palm Springs Vintage Races. Following a Guardsman Blue repaint with white Le Mans stripes and reinstallation of the hood vents sported by the car in the 1960s, CSX3006 was shown at SAAC-17 in July 1992.
Subsequent owners included Chris Cox of Prova International and Matt Prowse, followed by Jim Spiro, who regularly enjoyed the car and had it mechanically and cosmetically restored once again by Dralle prior to its acquisition in 2003 by Larry Bowman.
Bowman subsequently commissioned Legendary Motorcar Company of Milton, Ontario, Canada, to return the Cobra to its May 1966 Brands Hatch-winning colors and right-hand drive configuration, with the cost-no-object work documented on Legendary Motorcar’s popular Speed TV program, “Dream Car Garage.” In 2009, the Cobra passed through Henry Pearman of Uckfield, England, before it was sold in 2013 to Gary Bartlett of Muncie, Indiana, who showed the car at a succession of top international events. Among them were the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the 2014 Concorso Villa d’Este and the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Legendary Motorcar Company later restored the car back to its original specifications, including its metallic blue paint, FIA Halibrand wheels and its left-hand drive configuration, as seen at the 2022 Amelia Island event. Extremely rare and retaining its original aluminum body and chassis, CSX3006 is a racing legend in its own right, heightened by its May 1966 Ilford 500 victory at Brands Hatch in the hands of David Piper and Bob Bondurant.
While Shelby American was unable to officially fulfill its founder’s desire to campaign the 427 Cobra internationally under full FIA sanction as a production car, CSX3006 did, nonetheless, prove its effectiveness for one brief shining moment in England—a singular achievement never to be repeated. Despite its original racing use in the mid-1960s, when competition cars were merely considered implements and not multimillion-dollar investments, CSX3006 is one of very few Competition 427 Cobras to retain its original aluminum body, making it an irreplaceable historical document from the heady days when Shelby’s Cobra decimated the opposition in American SCCA
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