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The SHELBY AMERICAN
250 Fall 2015
Ok, it wasn’t an early GT350 qui-
etly rusting away in this field, but
from a distance it was sure worth a
closer look. Eric Veard of Amherst,
Ohio was stopped in his tracks when
he spotted the blue stripes on a white
Mustang. It turned out to be a Mus-
tang II Cobra II in a field behind an
abandoned building. He went in for a
closer look and saw one detail that
was especially interesting. The plaque
on the dash board was a 1975-76
SAAC member plate. Aside from the
serendipity, we have to marvel at the
ability of the plaque to withstand time
and the elements and stay stuck on
that dashboard.
BLUE STRIPES ON ANY WHITE MUSTANG ARE EYE-CATCHING
SHELBY CHALLENGE CAR BUBBLES TO THE SURFACE
We couldn’t help but notice that a
Shelby Challenge CSX4000 car was
advertised for the Russo and Steele
Monterey Auction. We couldn’t recall
any of these seven original cars being
offered at auction, and at no reserve it
would be a good indication of what one
of these cars might be worth.
Back in 1999, David Purcell,
owner of a marketing company, and
Roy Hunt, a Shelby CSX4000 dealer in
Las Vegas, hatched the idea for a spec-
series of races where retired name
drivers would drive specially-modified
CSX4000 Cobras as support races dur-
ing CART (Championship Auto Racing
Teams) Indycar events. The primary
goal was to attract publicity for the
new Shelby component cars. Televi-
sion coverage was crucial, and the list
of drivers being floated piqued a lot of
interest in the project: Mario Andretti,
Paul Newman, Bob Bondurant, Emer-
son Fittipaldi, Parnelli Jones, Bobby
and Al Unser, Tom Sneva, George
Follmer. John Morton, Johnny Ruther-
ford, Danny Sullivan.
Planning called for the “Shelby
Cobra Challenge Senior Racing Se-
ries” to begin the following year, 2000.
The “Senior” was quickly dropped
from the name because of the negative
public perception of a bunch of old-
timers racing when they probably
should have been driving golf carts
around a country club.
Seven cars were eventually built
to identical specifications by Shelby
American and buyers with stars in
their eyes stepped forward. The logis-
tics were formidable. The cars would
all be transported to the track and
owners would pay a share of the costs.
A crew of mechanics would oversee the
cars. The drivers’ travel and hotel ex-
penses would be paid out of a sponsor
fund. Owners would be part of each
car’s team and would participate in all
social activities.
The series never got off the
ground, primarily because CART
began to implode and, in 2003, de-
clared bankruptcy. The owners were
left with cars with no place to race
them. Neither fish nor fowl, they were
not eligible for SCCA competition and
no vintage race organization would ac-
cept them. They were invited to com-
pete at SAAC conventions and owners
found open track events where they
were allowed.
This is the first time a Cobra Chal-
lenge Car will be auctioned off and, at
No Reserve, it should provide a accu-
rate indication of these cars’ value.