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Cobra Daytona Coupe

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aeronca65t

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
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Cobra Daytona Coupes are "sort of British" so I'll put this here.
The Daytona chassis' were all built in the UK. The first prototype had a body built in California and the other five bodies were built in Italy.
The first car had a lower roof (it fit the shorter Ken Miles to a tee). The others had a taller roof profile that fit Dan Gurney better.

Within the last few years, one of the six real, Cobra Daytona Coupes was found in a storage locker. It had been locked in there for many years. There was some question about the ownership of it, but that has been resolved.
A rich buyer bought the car for $4 million and has vowed to "clean it up, but keep it as is" rather than fully restore it.
It apparently has an interesting history.

As Found
cobra_daytona_2287d.jpg


cobra_daytona_2287b.jpg


cobra_daytona_2287c.jpg



After the new owner cleaned it up
OldpicturelisasWedding143.jpg
 
$4 million, that's alot of pints! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thirsty.gif
 
Hi There aeronca;

Was It yourself that bought this "Barn Find" for $4Mil?? I did`nt See It @ your place of Bus. when I was over with Jim V.

Whats going on with the MGA these days?

Regards, Russ

PS: Please keep me posted to races @ Pocono (I live less than 4mi S. of the Track on RT.115):
 
Dave: That's almost exactly what Pete Brock said.

Steve: From what I've read, they spend quite a bit of time (and $) "bringing back" the old paint and did not re-paint it.

Russ: I wish! I'm a humble teacher.....don't got no $4 million handy. By the way, that business you were at with Jim V. is owned by Jim's friend, Pete McCarthy. Pete still has the MGA basket case for sale, I think. he wanted $2500.

I have a friend who is building a Daytona Coupe replica but he has become ill and has been stalled on the project for some time. I've mentioned how much I like it. I would prefer *he* gets to finish it and enjoy it, but if becomes available, he knows that I'm interested.
 
The persom who bought the Ex Phil Spector Daytona has an unbelievable collection of vintage race cars,

And is a real nice guy /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I often wonder why people get weird that a car sold for X million,

I like car guys spending money, it keeps it the hobby going,
keeps money flowing around the car game,

keeps us all hoping for a barn find,

Better he spends it on car junk then collecting stamps !

Beaulieu
 
There is also a lot of prestige in Cobra circles of owning the 'missing' Daytona. The last of the six cars. A ton of history with it.
 
The irony is that Shelby abandoned the Daytonas in France following their competition at LeMans. At the time, they were just used race cars that had been run hard and put away wet, and he couldn't justify spending the money to bring them to the US.

Peter Brock is on record as saying that the original Daytonas weren't something you'd want for a daily driver, because they were built in a hurry and with one objective: to win races.
 
Hello Aeronca,

I'm not sure what the difference between the 'Daytona' and the AC Cobra coupes that were raced at Le Mans. However, the latter are reputed to be why we had a 70mph speed limit put on our roads (1964 ish?) as AC used to test the Le Mans cars on our M1 motorway. (As did Aston Martin's test driver doing routine production car testing, his best average on a public road, in the order of 140mph) Our newspapers had a field day when they found this out.

We still have that pedestrian speed limit to this day.

Alec
 
Alec, they are the same car. Daytona is the nickname for the cars, I believe that was the first race they made it to and received the Daytona label at that time. Pete Brock designed the car for better top speed as the roadsters had the aerodynamics of a brick, regardless of the 400plus horsepower, and the Ferrari's were just walking away on the top speed sections of race tracks.

Jack Sears is supposed to be the culprit. I heard him speak recently and was talking about the high speed runs on the Motorways. He said they used to go at at the break of dawn because of lack of traffic and least amount of wind (cross/head or tail). He said the police knew about it and would help block traffic if needed. Then the press found out and blew it all out of proportion and got the government involved, ended the high speed runs and established the speed limit.
 
I think if Peter Brock had a garage full of daytonas he would be saying what a great car they were !

No Cobra is a great daily driver, its not what they were made for ,

Not that I would mind having one in my driveway !

beaulieu
 
Actually the cobra 289s and 260s are pretty nice for daily use. It's when they went to the 427 they lost the plot. would have been better going to the 351 windsor (small block) but, well, size sell I guess.
 
beaulieu said:
I think if Peter Brock had a garage full of daytonas he would be saying what a great car they were !
Click to expand...

Well, he was given the chance to "re-design" the Coupe with the 'Superformance Coupe', and designed a little more 'livability' into it.

As stated earlier, the original coupes were pure race cars. the only consideration was winning, not comfort. Roadsters didn't have much in the way of comfort either, but that was to be expected of roadsters.
 
Having worked at a Superformance dealer, I'll vouch for the arodynamics of the Cobra roadster. At about 110 they start getting light in the steering. That classic big gaping maw just sucks in the air and blows it out under the car. A chin spoiler helps a lot.
My Boss has a Superformance MKIII (427 cobra replica) running a Ford Motorsports 351 through a tremec 5 speed. He uses it almost daily.(has the hardtop for the winter) It's actually pretty tame if you try. but it's hard to be good knowing all thats on tap at any given moment.
I've driven replicas with everything from 302s to original 427 side oilers, to 514 motorsports engines putting out over 600 HP. My favorite was one we built as a pace car for Watkins Glen. it ran a 392 (bored/stroked 351) that was a well balanced car.
The 427 was hairy, and the 514s were insane. those ones scared me.
Personally I'd rather have the Superformance Daytona coupe instead of an original for all the above stated reasons. the Daytonas are not an easy car to get in and out of, even the replicas, but at least you can get the replica hot box with AC. Stupid on a roadster. almost necessary on the coupe.
 
I have Peter Brocks sweat in my helmet, should I sell it on ebay? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

I loaned it to him for this photo

Track%20car_1018.jpg


The Superformance Cobra Coupe is pretty cool

Track%20car_467.jpg
 
smcmanus said:
MoPho

What are the other cars in the picture? What was the purpose of the photo?

Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...

It was taken for an article in Car and Driver (March 07), they used this shot instead though

Track%20car_543.jpg


The cars are:
Lotus Exige S (supercharged)
Ariel Atom
Superformance Cobra Coupe
Corvette Z06
Noble M400
Porsche 911 GT3

This was on the cover of the issue

Track%20car_776.jpg



Here is the Article
 
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