The original Shelby Daytona Coupe needs little introduction, ranking as one of the greatest racing GTs of all time. Taking on the Ferrari GTO, they challenged the Italian team at every race they could, from Sebring to Le Mans, Daytona to the Nurburgring, winning the World Sportscar Championship for Shelby in 1965 in the culmination of the infamous ‘Cobra Ferrari Wars’.
Inevitably, as with the GT40 and the AC Cobra, there have been numerous attempts to copy the Daytona Coupe. None, however, were close to capturing the spirit and experience of the original. That was until Pete Brock – the original designer of the legendary Coupe – and Bob Negstad – the original chassis designer for the Shelby cars – finally reunited. Working with Superformance, they designed and built the 60s spiritual successor.
Chassis SPC0077 is one of the 9 examples currently in the United Kingdom. Appropriately finished in Indigo Blue with Wimbledon White stripes, it’s powered by a 402 Roush V8 (that’s 6.6 litres in pounds Sterling), breaths through duel barrel Holley carburetors and driven through a Tremec T-56 6 speed ‘box. With around 550bhp (and a similar numbered torque rating) these Coupes a reputedly capable of over 200mph and a 0-60 time in the region of 3.7 seconds. Having taken it for a drive, whilst we can assure you that it is ferociously fast, we can neither confirm nor deny these figures!
These Coupes must be viewed very differently from a replica; not only were they designed by those who were involved with the original cars, but are sanctioned by Shelby and are eligible for the Shelby Register.
