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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2015 247
Shelby tried several times to
launch this rocket but each time it
fizzled. He had a lot riding on it. At
that time 427 S/Cs were changing
hands for more than $1M each. He
had announced that he would be
selling his “completion cars” for
half that – $500K. So to his way of
thinking, it was a great deal. Half-
price for the buyer and he would
stand to rake in $22 million, less
whatever building 44 cars would
cost (a conservative estimate was
$440,000). Net profit: Shelby would
lug $21,560,000 to the bank.
It didn’t quite work out that
way, of course. A big reason was be-
cause instead of trying to feed a
handful of cars into the Cobra mar-
ket, CS wanted to go all in, and 44
cars was a huge number for the
market to absorb; almost half of the
total number of competition and
S/Cs originally built. Another factor
was that in 1992, vintage racing or-
ganizations were having no trouble
filling fields. Third, Shelby was
competing with a large number of
companies making replicas, includ-
ing his own–the CSX4000 series
cars. And fourth, Cobra prices had
declined and while a $500K 427
Cobra completion car looked like a
bargain compared to a $1M origi-
nal, when the originals could be
purchased for $650K it suddenly
wasn’t such a sweet deal. The re-
sult was that the completion cars
only attracted six buyers. The in-
ventory of parts left over were used
to build CSX4000 cars.
All six of the continuation
lightweight Es have been spoken
for. Nothing succeeds like success,
and Jaguar insiders are whispering
that they may have another project
up their sleeve. In 1957, 26 XK SS
models were built. They were D-
Type cars modified for road racing.
A fire at the factory destroyed nine
of them. Those nine VINs are avail-
able and Jaguar Heritage are ea-
gerly licking their lips. Steve
McQueen had one of the originals
and drove it on the street. That, in
itself, should guarantee the success
of the XK SSs.
50TH ANNIVERSARY COBRA COMMEMORATIVE
Shelby American announced a
50th Anniversary Daytona Coupe
model which they officially unveiled at
the Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
“
After the success of our 50th anniver-
sary edition Shelby Cobra big block
roadster program, we were bombarded
with requests to offer a limited edition
Daytona Coupe,
” said Keith Blair,
Shelby American Chief Operat-
ing Officer. “
We spent the last
year carefully planning an
aluminum car that is faithful
to the six built during the
1960s. In addition, we devel-
oped an anniversary edition
fiberglass version that is true to
the spirit of the Coupe, but reimagined
as if it had remained in production
over the years.”
The prices for the 50th anniver-
sary Coupes were pegged at $349,995
for the aluminum version and
$179,995 for fiberglass-bodied cars.
Shelby American expects to build
a combination of 50 specially-badged
Coupes, aluminum and fiberglass.
“
Since each original competition car
was slightly different,”
the press re-
lease stated.
“Shelby American chose
one specification for the continuation
cars that best represents all of the
Coupes
.” The press release also
states that they will all be
period correct.
Twenty-five cars are
scheduled to be built in
aluminum by Kirkham
(they are expected to take
two to three years). The
twenty-five fiberglass cars will
be built by Hi-Tech in South Africa. All
of the cars are described as component
vehicles, built to order and finished by
the customer or an authorized dealer.
They will be delivered as rolling chas-
sis. An aluminum block 289 engine
with the car’s serial number stamped
in is available separately from the
Shelby Engine Company.
The aluminum-bodied Daytona
Coupes will be given serial numbers
between CSX9950 and CSX9999. All
50th anniversary Coupes will be is-
sued a Shelby American serial number
for documentation in the official
Shelby American Worldwide Registry
(
not to be confused with SAAC’s Cobra
Registry
).