Carrol Shelby's personal Cobra up for sale

Is this like all the barn find Elvis bikes?
 
Sheesh...couple of millions for a car like that for sure.
Lot of collectors with deep pockets - though its hard to say if it will be driven all that much.

One should be able to build something like that for around 100k USD using a kit like this:
www.factoryfive.com

Complete Kit - Factory Five Racing

Mk4 Roadster Complete Kit: $20,990 Over the years we have expanded our chassis kit to include factory-new parts as well.…
www.factoryfive.com www.factoryfive.com
fordcobraengines.com

Ford 427 / 538 HP Crate Engine - Leading Supplier for Crate Engines

Ford 427 / 538 Horsepower Supercharged Crate Engine - The Biggest and baddest engines with a powerful sound to match. Dart 4 Bolt Main Block.
fordcobraengines.com fordcobraengines.com
 
I wish I had stupid F you money so I could bid that thing.

I particularly like this also....


The Cobra will set records IMO....classic car that belonged to a legend. $$$
 
Other quite interesting part with this car, so many were actually used as a race car and while original were just flogged. Really hard. This car is more like a daily driver, no side pipes, no hood scoop, didnt get brake vents cut into the body. It is quite unique.
And its Carol Shelby's car.
 
POWERMAN said:
Sheesh...couple of millions for a car like that for sure.
Lot of collectors with deep pockets - though its hard to say if it will be driven all that much.

One should be able to build something like that for around 100k USD using a kit like this:
www.factoryfive.com

Complete Kit - Factory Five Racing

Mk4 Roadster Complete Kit: $20,990 Over the years we have expanded our chassis kit to include factory-new parts as well.…
www.factoryfive.com www.factoryfive.com
fordcobraengines.com

Ford 427 / 538 HP Crate Engine - Leading Supplier for Crate Engines

Ford 427 / 538 Horsepower Supercharged Crate Engine - The Biggest and baddest engines with a powerful sound to match. Dart 4 Bolt Main Block.
fordcobraengines.com fordcobraengines.com
Click to expand...

When you copy something you, in essence, admit you're not as good.

There's only one original but countless copies.

That said, tribute cars, bands and the like let more people at least see, hear and enjoy the experience.
 
mimico_polak said:
The Cobra will set records IMO....classic car that belonged to a legend. $$$
Click to expand...
Cobra #1 sold for 13.75M USD in 2016. I wonder if this one is more or less important. I think less important as Shelby owned that one too until his death. There has been four more years of appreciation so who knows where the hammer will fall.

www.theglobeandmail.com

First Shelby Cobra sells for $17.7-million, priciest American car ever

The very first Cobra built by Carroll Shelby, which was used as his personal car and development prototype, sold for $17.69-million ($13.75-million U.S.) including auction fees at RM Sotheby's Monterey sale over the weekend
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
 
Article says he modified it and painted it during his ownership, but then was restored to original spec. I know modding a car won't increase value and at best it won't decrease value...but considering by who's hand it was modified by I'm wondering if it would have been worth more if they left it as Mr. Shelby did.
 
Michael0124 said:
Article says he modified it and painted it during his ownership, but then was restored to original spec. I know modding a car won't increase value and at best it won't decrease value...but considering by who's hand it was modified by I'm wondering if it would have been worth more if they left it as Mr. Shelby did.
Click to expand...
I agree in principle, but a red automatic cobra is infinitely less desirable to me (and I suspect most others) than a grey stick cobra. Does it really matter when this poor thing probably spends its life behind glass though?
 
GreyGhost said:
Cobra #1 sold for 13.75M USD in 2016. I wonder if this one is more or less important. I think less important as Shelby owned that one too until his death. There has been four more years of appreciation so who knows where the hammer will fall.

www.theglobeandmail.com

First Shelby Cobra sells for $17.7-million, priciest American car ever

The very first Cobra built by Carroll Shelby, which was used as his personal car and development prototype, sold for $17.69-million ($13.75-million U.S.) including auction fees at RM Sotheby's Monterey sale over the weekend
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
Click to expand...
There is always someone with more money than brains at these auctions. It could go either way.
 
Well if I hit LottoMax before the auction then I’m buying it. YOLO!
 
its not just the purchase price with some of this stuff, its the care and feeding. Visit Goodwood any year (except this one LOL) and watch people drive 5 million dollar cars into each other (very bad form) and into the buckwheat. They run one of a kind engines very hard, and carry insurance which I understand can be 10-15k pounds per weekend.
There is an entire network of people making a living making new crankshafts for '32 jaguars and astons . Its another world.
 
One of the challenges of restoring things is what do you restore it to.

I've restored a few wooden boats and if done to original standards I would have had to use obsolete paints. Smaller boats were not expected to outlast fasteners so often steel was used instead of brass or bronze.

The curator of a marine museum commented that when you restore a boat you destroy its history. Every rotted plank and cracked frame tells a story. Every layer of paint is a page of history. The problem is no one will pay to see a bunch of rotted old boats.

With cars, while survivors are cool the gleaming full restorations get the oohs and awes.

The US Parks department takes care of federal museum restorations. The problem they have is determining the cause of damage to, for example a White House desk. Was the dent done by a careless janitor or Trump kicking it after the Biden win?

Do you restore the Mustang to day one, or with Shelby's final choices?
 
nobbie48 said:
One of the challenges of restoring things is what do you restore it to.

I've restored a few wooden boats and if done to original standards I would have had to use obsolete paints. Smaller boats were not expected to outlast fasteners so often steel was used instead of brass or bronze.

The curator of a marine museum commented that when you restore a boat you destroy its history. Every rotted plank and cracked frame tells a story. Every layer of paint is a page of history. The problem is no one will pay to see a bunch of rotted old boats.

With cars, while survivors are cool the gleaming full restorations get the oohs and awes.

The US Parks department takes care of federal museum restorations. The problem they have is determining the cause of damage to, for example a White House desk. Was the dent done by a careless janitor or Trump kicking it after the Biden win?

Do you restore the Mustang to day one, or with Shelby's final choices?
Click to expand...
I like watching "Chasing Classic Cars" for your reasons. My favorite was the Stutz Bearcat episode.
 
nobbie48 said:
When you copy something you, in essence, admit you're not as good.

There's only one original but countless copies.

That said, tribute cars, bands and the like let more people at least see, hear and enjoy the experience.
Click to expand...
Considering the Cobra is more of a Frankenstein's monster than most cars, I think it's kind of appropriate that it's lived on in a million kit cars.


nobbie48 said:
One of the challenges of restoring things is what do you restore it to.

I've restored a few wooden boats and if done to original standards I would have had to use obsolete paints. Smaller boats were not expected to outlast fasteners so often steel was used instead of brass or bronze.

The curator of a marine museum commented that when you restore a boat you destroy its history. Every rotted plank and cracked frame tells a story. Every layer of paint is a page of history. The problem is no one will pay to see a bunch of rotted old boats.

With cars, while survivors are cool the gleaming full restorations get the oohs and awes.

The US Parks department takes care of federal museum restorations. The problem they have is determining the cause of damage to, for example a White House desk. Was the dent done by a careless janitor or Trump kicking it after the Biden win?

Do you restore the Mustang to day one, or with Shelby's final choices?
Click to expand...
This is definitely true for wooden boats. Water is a great destroyer. My grandfather sailed a 6 Meter back in the '50s and '60s, and she recently reappeared being restored out in Victoria. My father went to visit during the restoration, and he said so much of the wood had been replaced (out of necessity) that the original was more of a template for a new boat being built piece by piece than it was a fixed up version of the old boat.

This applies to art and buildings, too. Look at the recent restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece. When cleaned up, images were revealed that had been covered up for centuries. The modification is on the left, the recently revealed and restored Van Eyck original is on the right:

ghent altarpiece.jpg

Needless to say, not everyone was convinced that the original was an improvement on the modified version...
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