Interested in buying a legend" The original Shelby Cobra, the very first car that Carroll Shelby hand-built, the one that kicked off the Shelby legacy that still carries on today, is going up for sale at RM Sotheby’s Monterey Auction on August 19. We have a feeling this car is going to generate some intense bidding.
When we say original, we mean it. This is the very first of the Cobras?created in 1962 when Carroll Shelby shoehorned a 260-cubic-inch Ford V-8 between the wheel wells of a British-made AC Ace roadster. When that engine met that body, a legend was born.
The car, known as CSX 2000, served as the development prototype for what would become the Shelby empire. And it never left the founder’s hands?Shelby maintained this car as his personal Cobra from day one. It is truly a one-owner car.
That’s not to say it was pampered, though. In a tale that is now legendary, Shelby pulled a little scam on the car magazines that tested this car. After the Cobra was made public, CSX 2000 was sent out to every major car magazine for testing. But Shelby, wanting it to seem like he’d already built a fleet of Cobras, had the car repainted a different color before each magazine test. The magazines each thought they’d gotten a different car, and Shelby’s legend was sealed.
“It is the actual pen with which he signed his declaration of war and the idea upon which he built his company and revolutionized American racing?and the greater au...