CSX 2300. 1 of 6 most raced

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CSX 2300

Just A Car Guy: Tadashi Sakai, 1945-2001, one of the few to own and race a Cobra Daytona coupe, was a cinematographer and director of photography in movies in the 60s and 70s.

This is CSX2300, the only Cobra to really continue its competition record past 1965, winning the most events outright out of all 6 original chassis.


http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2023/10/tadashi-sakai-one-of-few-to-race-cobra.html

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just one more nugget on Tadashi San

The great Tadashi Sakai and his Cobra at the 1967 Fuji Speed Festival!

1967 was one of the peak years for motorsport in Japan, with the rise of Taki Racing Team just around the corner, various domestic manufacturers building their own cars and of course Japanese drivers importing some incredible cars to match the ever increasing speed of domestic racing cars.

The Shelby Cobra of Sakai (CSX2300) has been covered a lot in the past on our page as its the only Cobra to really continue its competition record past 1965, winning the most events outright out of all 6 original chassis. Here however, Sakai had to settle for less than a victory.

The Fuji Speed Festival was first held this year, racing around the Indy layout of Fuji, cutting off the entire banked section. Entrants were incredibly varied for the sports car race - Shintaro Taki would enter his Porsche 906 (this being his final race as driver), DEL entered their RSB as well as a couple of Lotus Elan's to match the Fairlady 2000's which were becoming one of the most popular cars to race at the time.

Tadashi Sakai qualified 2nd overall with a 1:42.530 laptime, almost 5 seconds behind Taki who qualified for pole. The race itself was a large battle between Sakai and Taki, who had previously teamed up during the 1967 Japan GP and would cross paths later on too.

 Sakai would finish in 2nd place after completing all 40 laps of the race, 18 seconds behind Taki.