The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2015 80
When Peter Brock designed the
Daytona Coupe he was only twenty-
eight years old. As soon as Ken Miles
tested the car at Riverside it was imme-
diately evident his design was success-
ful – even to Shelby American’s
fabricators and mechanics who had been
skeptical as that first car was going to-
gether. Behind his back, the car was
called “Brock’s Folly.”
The car’s first race at Daytona
turned those frowns upside down. The
Coupe, along with a few Cobra road-
sters, were campaigned at FIA en-
durance races in Europe and came
within a whisker of beating Ferrari. In
fact, Cobra would have, had not Old Man
Ferrari’s sleight of hand with the Auto
Club d’Italia. They allowed his 250 LM
prototypes to run in the GT class at
Monza. The cars had been banned by the
FIA because not enough examples had
been built. As a result, the FIA revoked
their sanction of FIA points from the
event, essentially eliminating any
chance that the Daytona (or anyone else)
could win any points. Ferrari won in
1964 by default. The following year,
1965, the Cobra Team was back and on
July 4th they won the World Manufac-
turers Championship’ GT Class.
Brock immediately started design-
ing a slick Coupe body for the new 427
Cobra. Politics entered the picture and
the project was stillborn. He left Shelby
American shortly thereafter and struck
out on his own. If he had the feeling that
he had peaked too soon, that was under-
standable. He went on to campaign a
team of Datsuns in the Trans-Am Under
2-Liter series, winning so convincingly
that within two years the major competi-
tors BMW and Alfa Romeo dropped out
entirely. Interest in the series subse-
quently waned and the SCCA cancelled it.
As satisfying as that was, it didn’t come
close to the Daytona Coupe and the World
manufacturers Championship.
After that, Brock went on to complete
a number of projects in diverse areas. He
built hang gliders that won the world cross
country hang glider championships six out
of seven years. The U.S. Hang Glider Asso-
ciation banned his last design, a foot-
launched, three-axis controlled, pilot-
enclosed sailplane because it was too fast
and virtually eliminated any chance of the
competition winning. They flew at alti-
tudes of 15,000 feet and covered 300 miles.
Brock was also responsible for the design
of the Shelby Can-Am spec racer in the
late 1980s. He consulted in the restoration
of a number of cars he was associated with
as their value increased and their histori-
cal importance was recognized. He con-
sulted with Superformance in South Africa
in redesigning the Daytona Coupes they
were constructing. Most recently he was
involved in the reimagination of the 1965
GT350 R-Model prototype. And he is cur-
rently responsible for the design and man-
ufacture of the Aerovault trailer – an
aerodynamic enclosed single-car trans-
porter. All this since leaving Shelby Amer-
ican in 1966.
Along the way he wrote the definitive
book on the history of the Daytona Coupes
which was highly acclaimed and is now out
of print. When copies currently change
hands they do so for upwards of $1,000.
Brock has continued to maintain an
intense interest in the Coupes, and fol-
lows the history and chain of ownership
of each one. He has always found time to
answer owner’s questions and is one of
the most accessible people ever con-
nected to the Cobras. He attends numer-
ous automotive gatherings each year,
often serving as a guest speaker, and en-
joys talking with everyone he meets, tak-
ing time to answer questions or discuss
the finer points of his experiences over
the years. He is as close as it gets to
bring a genuine automotive Renaissance
Man.
Being reunited with all six Daytona
Coupes at Goodwood had to be one of the
crowning experiences of his life, espe-
cially coming some fifty years after he
might have thought his Daytona Coupe
association had peaked in 1965. After all,
how much better could it get than de-
signing the only American GT sports car
ever to win the World Manufacturers
Championship.
After that happened, Peter Brock
did not retire to lay back on the beach,
sipping from a drink with a small um-
brella in it. He continued to find chal-
lenges to triumph over. You might half
expect to see a Peter Brock high energy
drink because we don’t know how else he
is able to keep so busy.
Peter Brock is approaching 80 years
old, although he neither looks it or acts
like it. The 2015 Goodwood Revival was
intended to be a tribute to the Daytona
Coupe but it was actually a tribute to
Peter Brock.
PETER BROCK: AUTOMOTIVE RENAISSANCE MAN