What it’s like to drive the Shelby Cobra Daytona

Behind the wheel of a rare racing legend

Would you rather have a Shelby Cobra Daytona or a Ferrari 250GTO? It’s a tough choice between two fabled sports car rivals from the mid ’60s, the swansong of the great GT era.

Given a free choice, I’d pick the Cobra. Irrational? Perhaps, but its blend of muscular looks, exotic rarity and brutal performance has gripped me since I was a lad.

I didn’t see one until I was in my 30s. I had all the books and models, knew the chassis numbers off by heart and never tired of its captivating story. 

Combine that magnetic appeal with one of the most colourful rivalries in racing and I can’t help but root for the Guardsman Blue, white-striped upstart that dared to challenge the might of Ferrari.

Instant nostalgia

Reaching through the open window to find the door catch of CSX 2300 – the fourth Daytona built of six – conjures up a wealth of images, from the determined development in Shelby’s cramped Venice Beach facility to its last FIA race at Enna, in the heart of Mafia country.

The aluminium door is flyweight, and it’s a struggle to contort yourself into the basic Caterham bucket race seat that’s replaced the original padded vinyl design.

Inside it’s dark, with blackpainted satin finish, five instruments – Smiths rev counter with Stewart-Warner ancillaries all to the right of the wheel – and a phalanx of toggles on the wide centre console. It’s stark compared to the glamorous, extrovert exterior. 

A car of contrasts

With the wide windscreen offering a clear view down the long bonnet, it’s all logical, purposeful and surprisingly roomy (designer Pete Brock ensured that the Daytona Coupe could fit every size of driver).

Pedals pivot from the floor and their AC logos acknowledge the origins of the chassis, built in the UK then shipped out to California: AC Cars billed Shelby American £363 for CSX 2300 before it was air-freighted to LA, where the frame was stiffened and a simple rollover bar fitted behind the seats.

Refined for safety

The wood-rimmed wheel is a smaller replacement item because the racer’s more recent drivers demanded additional room and sharper response from the rack-and-pinion steering. 

Likewise, the cockpit is tighter and safer than it was for the likes of Bob Bondurant, Jochen Neerpasch, Jo Schlesser and Sir John Whitmore, who all raced this very chassis in its heyday. There’s now a beefy roll-cage with a four-point harness. Amazingly, no one has ever been seriously injured in a Daytona Cobra – despite its fearsome 198mph performance.

It takes three to tango

Firing up requires just three switches: fuel pump, ignition, then starter. Quickly the greedy downdraught 48IDA Webers feed the simple iron-block pushrod V8, and it erupts into life with a wild roar that rocks the car and blasts out under the sill in front of those magnificent Halibrand wheels.

A Cobra roadster sounds spectacular on side pipes, but being strapped into this 2300lb coupe doubles the intensity of that wicked volcanic din.

Floor the throttle and it sounds like a manic steam hammer at full tilt. The awesome performance matches that aural drama, and it’s easy to appreciate the 4.4 secs 0-60mph that Car and Driver clocked in ’66 as you rocket through the cogs. 

Hit go and you'll smoke it

The short gearing and instant torque will easily get the tail snaking as you yank the stubby T-10 gearlever across the H-gate. Invasive heat and rumble all add to the sensations of the Daytona’s spectacular launch.

Swedish Indy 500 winner Kenny Bräck’s smoky, slithering take-offs at the Goodwood Festival of Speed matched an IndyCar burnout. You never see that from a GTO!

Invasive heat and rumble all add to the sensations of its spectacular launch, as you work the car hard to keep it in a straight line. Beads of sweat are running down my forehead after a few laps. It must have been stifling on the prototype’s debut at Daytona. 

Fangs in the back

The action of the smaller wheel lightens as the pace builds, sending clear messages back from the road, while the stiffer chassis delivers a tauter feel than a Cobra roadster – though you can still feel the tubular frame twist under load in fast turns, despite the extra bracing. 

But as Jack Sears, who raced CSX 2300 at Reims, recalled in 2012: “It was a big step forward over the roadster. With that you’d just grit your teeth and get on with it, but the Coupe had good handling and was fun to drive.”

Pretty wild ride

With 390bhp, it’s easy to unstick the rear to balance the initial understeer, but it doesn’t have a Ferrari’s composure; rather than a progressive drift, it’s more of a fight through the corners, and way more physical. The brakes take a hefty push and the clutch, too, demands muscle. 

“It’s a beast but in a positive way,” says Bräck. “With so much horsepower and little brakes, it requires lots of improvisation. Roadholding is a constant battle.”

Words to be eaten

I could have driven the Daytona until its tank ran dry, but the riotous exhaust limits our running. Taking one on the open road with the original race system would soon get you stopped today, but that’s how CSX 2300 entered its first event in September ’64: the Tour de France. 

One of three cars fielded by Shelby in an effort to beat Ferrari, it was driven by Jochen Neerpasch and Bob Bondurant. “I wanted to run my old Le Mans car because I knew the bugs had been worked out,” the American recalls, “but Carroll said ‘the new car will last longer’.” The boss would live to regret his claim.

Gruelling campaign

Despite several promising results – including an easy win at Reims and another victory on the Bramont hillclimb – the Dayona’s Tour de France campaign would be beset by mechanical failures, from broken throttle cables to disintegrating clutches to engine failures.

The team was left demoralised after long hours spent trying to keep the Cobras running and, adding insult to the exhaustion, Ferrari secured the championship. Shelby took his revenge the next year, but only after Enzo withdrew following controversy over the 250LM’s homologation.

Legend all the same

Regardless of the result, though, Bondurant has fond memories of the Daytona Coupe, and is rightly proud of his ’64 Le Mans GT class win with Dan Gurney.

“With improved aerodynamics and reinforced chassis, the Daytona still oversteered and understeered but not as badly,” he explains. “In practice, we calculated that the Daytona would run 198mph down the Mulsanne. Even in road trim on the Tour de France, we were doing 185mph. That thing really hauled and I’d never been so fast.”

To the States and back again

After that? CSX 23000 spent time in both the US and Europe, competing at the likes of Sebring, Daytona, Reims and the Nürburgring, before returning home to be kept as a spare at Shelby American.

Come the famous ‘Garage Sale’ of March 1966, the Cobra was snapped up by Polish enthusiast Oscar Koveleski for $4000, who promptly sold it on to the then-director of NASCAR in Japan, Don Nichols, who had it shipped east – only to sell it again to local hotshot Tadashi Sakai.

Saved by a fan

After appearing in several enduros, the engine blew and a new buyer considered converting the famed machine into a single seater. 

Mercifully, this didn’t happen: Shin Yoshikawa, a young Cobra fan, scraped together $3000 to rescue it, fitting it with an old scrapyard motor to satisfy import regulations that would otherwise have seen it crushed. Sadly, once all the paperwork was sorted, he had to sell it to pay everyone back.

Lost, found and raced

CSX 2300 then vanished for a decade, until Shelby designer Pete Brock got word that the Daytona was at a small used-car dealership in Tokyo. Cobra authority Mike Shoen brokered the deal and Carroll Shelby acquired it in 1975. Long overdue for restoration, the Daytona was entrusted to Cobra specialist Mike McCluskey, and finally emerged from his LA shop in 1983.

After that? CSX 2300 appeared at multiple museums, was sold several times, wore various colour schemes and competed in numerous historic events. At some of those meets, it’s found itself going head-to-head with GTOs once more. No prizes for guessing who I cheered for.