Monday, 17 June 2019

The Rare Shelby Cobras of the Early to Mid-1960s




Guiding GMP Cars., Geoffrey Palermo has experience in exotic upgrades and restorations designed to bring luxury automobiles to peak performance. Knowledgeable about vintage cars, Geoffrey Palermo has restored several vehicles, ranging from classic American muscle cars to refined European vehicles.

One of the pioneering automotive designers of the 1960s was Carroll Shelby, who served as a flight instructor in World War II and emerged as a top race-car driver in the early 1950s. His key innovations included taking the British AC Bristol roadster with a straight-6 engine and pairing it with a 260-cubic-inch Ford V8 engine in 1962. This created the Shelby Cobra, commonly referred to as the Mark I Cobra, which was soon increased to a 289-cubic-inch V8.

In 1965, the Cobra took on its classic muscle-car formulation with the Mark III Cobra 427, which had a massive Ford 427 engine that required the creation of an entirely new chassis. This model became the precursor to the 427 Competition Cobra. Designed as a racing version of the Cobra 427, only 56 of the 600-horsepower Competition Cobra were ever produced. The Competition model never received regulatory approval from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and 31 of these vehicles were converted for road use and dubbed the Semi-Competition Cobra.

In auction, the super rare Semi-Competition Cobras consistently achieve prices of $2 million and higher when in proper working order and with original engine and body panels.