1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe

Chassis Number: Chassis number: CSX2300

Photo credit: Mathieu Heurtault, copyright and courtesy of Gooding & Company LLC

One of six examples of these race cars produced takes the overall win at Monterey Car Week

Billed to Shelby American in November 1963, CSX2300 was the third Daytona Coupe completed.

CSX2300 debuted at the final round of the 1964 FIA GT Championship: the Tour de France Automobile. Arriving in France wearing Viking Blue paint, CSX2300 was entrusted to American Bob Bondurant and German Jochen Neerpasch and assigned race No. 187. Bondurant preferred the proven Le Mans Coupe, but Shelby chose this car, reasoning: “This new car should last longer; everything in it is new.”

For a moment, Shelby appeared to be right. CSX2300 won the opening two stages of the Tour de France, with Neerpasch taking victory at Reims and Bondurant winning the Bramont Hill Climb. Then came the realities of endurance racing. An accelerator cable issue at Rouen slowed the car, followed by a gearbox-mount failure en route to Le Mans. Later, while leading at Le Mans, CSX2300 suffered a broken crankshaft.

In 1965, with CSX2300 and three additional Cobra Daytona Coupes at the center of the effort, Shelby delivered on that promise. Rebuilt for the 1965 campaign and repainted in the Guardsman Blue livery that would become synonymous with Shelby American’s championship season, CSX2300 was entrusted to Allen Grant, a young member of the production department.

The 1965 FIA season opened at Daytona. Driven by Grant and Ed Leslie, CSX2300 was the fastest Cobra Daytona Coupe in qualifying, starting 5th overall. Despite running much of the race with a slipping clutch, it finished 6th overall and 3rd in class.

At Sebring one month later, Leslie and Grant qualified CSX2300 as the second-fastest Daytona Coupe, but the race nearly ended moments after the start when Leslie was struck by another car. The Shelby crew quickly repaired the car and returned it to competition. CSX2300 went on to finish 13th overall and 3rd in class, while Grant set the GT lap record with a remarkable time of 3:11.7.

The final chapter of CSX2300’s championship campaign came at the 12 Hours of Reims in July 1965. By this point, Shelby American was close to securing the world title, but nothing about endurance racing came easily. The car returned to Guardsman Blue, wearing race No. 27, and was entrusted to English drivers Jack Sears and John Whitmore.

When a connecting-rod failure threatened to end CSX2300’s race, the team refused to accept defeat. Mechanics removed the damaged components, improvised a repair and returned the car to competition. In the end, the battered Daytona Coupe crossed the finish line 9th overall and 2nd in class.

With this result at Reims, Shelby American secured the 1965 FIA World Manufacturers’ Championship.

(Introductory description courtesy of Gooding Christie’s.)

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Vehicle:	1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe
Years Produced:	1964
Number Produced:	6
SCM Valuation:	$25,000,000–$30,000,000
Chassis Number Location:	Tag riveted to passenger’s footbox; stamped on right front frame rail near upper control arm
Engine Number Location:	Casting number and date code on lower front
Club Info:	Club: Shelby American Automobile Club
Website:	www.saac.com/
Alternatives:	1962–64 Ferrari 250 GTO, 1964–69 Ford GT40, 1965 Bizzarrini 3500 GT Corsa
Investment Grade:	A

This car, Lot 39, sold for $42,905,000, including buyer’s premium, at Gooding Christie’s Pebble Beach, CA, sale, on August 15, 2026.

Carroll Shelby was always a racer. When he started the Cobra program, it was to go racing with an ultimate goal of beating Ferrari. The Cobras did their job well on the shorter SCCA tracks in the U.S. But when they went to Europe to challenge Ferrari for the FIA World Championship, the Cobras — having all the aerodynamics of a barn door — were not successful on the longer, high-speed European tracks. Shelby then asked young employee Peter Brock to design a new body for the cars, and the result was the Cobra Daytona Coupe.

Having an aerodynamic closed-cockpit design, it was capable of a 20-mph higher top speed than the open Cobra. Not only that, but increased fuel economy necessitated fewer pit stops during longer races. The result was a near-victory at the 1964 Daytona 24-hour race (the Coupe was sidelined by a pit fire while in the lead). Then to Sebring, where the Coupe won its class. Shelby knew he had a winner.

Shelby couldn’t do it with one car, and he didn’t have the resources to build more at his Los Angeles facility, so he contracted for five more bodies to be built in Italy. Each chassis was prepared by Shelby with its drivetrain installed, and then shipped to Italy for completion.

One-season wonder

Our feature car, chassis CSX2300, was one of the Italian-built cars. A total of six Cobra Daytona Coupes were on the track by the end of the ’64 season, racking up championship points. The racing season came down to the final race on the schedule, in Italy. The Cobras had almost caught Ferrari in points and there was no doubt that they would clinch the championship in Ferrari’s home country. That was, until Enzo Ferrari used his political influence to have the Italian race decertified from the championship, leaving his team standing in first place in the shortened season.

Shelby came back with a vengeance in 1965 at Daytona and had the initials “F.A.I.M.” on the cars and team uniforms. When asked what it stood for, he answered, “Ferrari’s Ass is Mine.” And he was correct. On July 4, at the French race, the Cobras finished with enough points to clinch the World Championship. This was the only American team to have won the World Championship, giving the Daytona Coupe the unofficial title of “America’s Greatest Race Car.”

By the end of the ’65 season, the Daytona Coupes were yesterday’s news. Ford and Shelby’s focus had shifted to the GT40 program, and no one particularly wanted the six well-used race cars. They sat for a bit at Alan Mann Racing in England but could not stay in that country with an import duty looming. But if they returned to Shelby in the States, duty would need to be paid on the five cars built in Italy. So, a plan was conceived to put the six cars on a boat, sail into the North Sea and push them all overboard. Cooler heads prevailed and Ford agreed to pay the duty to return the cars to the U.S. The six Coupes ended up being sold to various parties. Or, in one case, given to Bob Bondurant to settle his driver’s compensation for the season. Music producer Phil Spector also bought one and drove it around Los Angeles for a while.

Victorious once again

We rarely see Cobra Daytona Coupes trade in the market. The last time one came to public auction was in 2009, when CSX2601 sold at Mecum’s Monterey auction for $7.7 million (SCM# 141984). That car went to a private collector in Argentina. Another is in a private collection in Arizona, and one is in the Shelby American Collection in Boulder, CO. Yet another is in the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia, and a museum in Japan has one too.

The final car, our subject CSX2300, had been residing in a private collection in Switzerland for the past 20-plus years, until Gooding Christie’s announced in July that it would headline its Pebble Beach sale. It put an estimate on the car of “in excess of $25,000,000.” Speculation was rampant about the price. Comparisons were made to the car it was built to beat, the Ferrari 250 GTO. One of those brought $38.5 million at Mecum’s Kissimmee auction earlier this year (SCM# 6971449), although stories abound of $75 million-plus private sales. Would the car that beat Ferrari on the track beat it again on the auction block?

The Gooding Christie’s tent was packed with spectators for the main event. When bidding opened for CSX2300, the first accepted bid was $8 million — already above the 2009 auction result. There was a quick jump to $15 million and then rounds of million-dollar bites at the apple prevailed. When the $30 million mark was reached, the crowd reacted. Ultimately the bidding reached $39 million and the car was hammered sold for a final price of $42.9 million, a strong-but-fair result. Once again, the Cobra had prevailed over Ferrari. Not to mention, it had set another new record: most valuable American car ever sold at public auction (and also the most expensive car sold at Car Week this year).

Chassis CSX2300 was in meticulous condition for the sale. While we don’t know the identity of the buyer, we hope it will be displayed at future concours and run at some vintage track events so that fans and spectators can continue to appreciate what a small group of California hot-rodders accomplished in the early 1960s when they set out to beat European competition with an American car.

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