– Rick Kopec

The spear is one of the purest designs.It is about as aerodynamic as you can getand is comprised of only two parts: thepoint and the shaft. It needs nothing elseto work as intended. It is the perfect exam-ple of the concept of form following func-tion. It cannot be improved.

In the automotive world of the 1960s,one of the best examples of form followingfunction is the Cobra Daytona Coupe. Thecar looks as fresh today, fifty years after itwas designed, as it did when it was brandnew. During that time it has become an au-tomotive icon. It doesn’t have anything itdoes not need; every one of the car’s detailsis there for a reason. That reason? To cheatthe wind which enabled the car to have ahigher top speed and achieve increasedfuel mileage in the bargain.

Prior to the 1960s, automobile racingin the United States had been primarilyopen-wheeled racers; everything fromquarter-midgets on small town, dirt-trackbull rings to the fabled Indianapolis 500 onMemorial Day. NASCAR was still a re-gional delicacy of the southeast: oversizedsedans painted like carnival rides anddriven by former moonshiners. Sports carracing had a decidedly silk scarf andstring-backed driving gloves European fla-vor until the Corvette and Cobra roaredinto the picture. The Corvette representedthe General Motors leviathan but theCobra was an upstart and an underdogfrom the beginning. As the cars gained suc-cess, the sport itself began to be noticed.Places like Sebring, Watkins Glen andRiverside gained a gritty panache.

The Cobra was the result of a drawl-ing Texas cowboy who could charm theleaves off the trees and sell sand to theArabs. He surrounded himself with Cali-fornia hot rodders who were unable to take“no” for an answer. “Can’t” was not in theirvocabulary. The Coupe was fast right outof the box, the Cobra team set its sights onthe European establishment, personifiedby the blood-red Ferraris, taking the fightinto their backyard.

The blunt Cobra roadster worked wellenough on the short courses in the U.S.but on the longer European circuits itwould be swimming upstream. A newweapon was needed for the Cobra’s as-sault. Improbably, it turned out to be ashapely, smooth, fastback coupe designedby a boy wonder from a sketch on the backof a cocktail napkin. When the reputed ex-perts first saw the partially-finished carthey scoffed but Peter Brock’s confidencewas unshakeable. The first time Ken Milesdrove the Coupe at Riverside he broke hisCobra roadster lap record and walked

away from its top speed.The “Daytona” Cobra was unveiled at

the 12-Hour Daytona race in February1964. It was the U.S. endurance event thatmost closely simulated the high speed Eu-ropean tracks, and the new car sent ashudder through the competition. It wasrun-away fast and would have knockedover Ferrari’s apple cart had not a freakflash fire during a pit stop resulted insidelining the car. However, notice hadbeen served and the competition realizedthat they had just been run over by theseupstart hot rodders who came out ofnowhere. It was suddenly a new game andif the Europeans wanted to play theyneeded to make some changes. Quickly.

In racing, nothing stays the same forvery long. Even winning cars are refinedor updated for the next season. The origi-nal Cobra was based on a fairly archaicEnglish chassis, revised and strengthenedin California and became the catalyst forchange in the sports car world. The tip ofShelby’s spear was the Daytona Coupe.

The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2014 20

The SHELBY AMERICAN Fall 2014 21

Original artwork by Larry Gardinier

– Frank Zizzo

Years ago I walked into my local Wal-Mart wearing my SAAC T-shirt with aDaytona Coupe emblazoned in full color onthe front. A young woman came up to me,pointed at my shirt and said, “That's mydad's car!!”

I smiled at her, figuring that she didn'tknow a Daytona Coupe from a Yugo. Whenshe said CSX2287, I was taken aback. Itturned out that her father, Jim Russell ofRusskit model fame, was one of the earlyowners of the car. She said that her dad

sold the car for $40,000 in order to pay forcollege for her and her sister. That car wasa part of her life story that she will carrywith her forever.

There was a time when those six carshad very little value. Many times I heardthe phrase, “There is nothing more worth-less than a year old race car.” Bob Johnsonreminisced that Shelby offered him one ofthe Coupes and a trailer full of spares for$800 and he turned it down. Back in theday, those that drove and maintained theCoupes created a phenomenon that sweptaway Ferrari and made history. Today, itseems that the drivers and mechanics arelifted and embellished by their involve-ment with the cars. The Coupes are main-taining them.

The Coupes are rare, but rarity doesnot always create value. I believe that theCoupes are what they are because of PeterBrock. Beyond the beauty of the designand the functionality of the vehicle, thereare intangible elements that transform amachine into something that reflects theenergy and intensity of the designer. Brockfought for his design and was proven cor-rect after a tremendous amount of criti-cism and obstructionism. He put a bit ofhis soul into each of the cars and knowsthem collectively and individually. There isno detail in the design that is not compli-mented by another element of design. Thecompleted car is more than the sum of itsparts. Given the history of the Coupes andthe energy of their designer, their place inthe Shelby story of racing is forever fixed.

– Jeff Burgy

Shelby Cobras are renowned theworld over as fast, ferocious, and expensiveracing cars, but none are faster or more ex-pensive than the six Cobra DaytonaCoupes designed by Peter Brock. Why arethey so fast? Why are they so expensive?Well, it’s all about a design execution thatwas “right on,” a team of incredibly tal-ented designers, engineers, fabricators,and drivers, and winning the World Man-ufacturer’s Championship for 1965.

My first experience with a DaytonaCoupe in the flesh was at the New York In-ternational Automobile Show in April1966. I was going to college in Brooklyn inthe mid-to-late sixties, and usually made apoint to go into Manhattan for the new carshow and the hot rod show that was heldin the New York Coliseum. A retired Day-tona Coupe, wearing the number 11 (CSX2286) was on display at the new car show.Back in those days, I always carried asketch pad with me (after all, I was goingto “Art School” at Pratt, preparing to fulfilla dream to go to work at Ford as an auto-motive stylist). I stood by the Cobra for afew minutes, and made a very nice sketchof it. It had such a beautiful shape, andwas absolutely stunning in GuardsmanBlue with Wimbledon White stripes.

Another treat at that show was myfirst introduction to the GT350H. Boy, didthat thing look spectacular in glossy Blackwith Gold stripes! That’s likely where I gotmy very first Cobra poster and Hertz carbrochure. This episode would eventuallylead to an obsession with Shelby Cobras,Shelby Mustangs, and collecting Shelbyliterature and memorabilia.

The SHELBY AMERICAN

The Daytona Coupeand WalMart?

Shelby’s LegendaryCobra Daytona Coupe

Fall 2014 22

Little did I know then, that a fewyears later, in 1971, I realized anotherdream and bought a 1966 Shelby GT350.SAAC as formed a few years after that andI attended their first convention in Oak-land, California. It was here that I met upwith Mike Shoen. The Coupe was on dis-play in front of the hotel, and I was admir-ing the car and taking pictures. I wasasking Mike some questions about the carwhen he said, “Would you like to drive itaround the parking lot?”

Would I? Ha! Would I like to win a mil-lion dollars in the Lottery? Would I like adate with Raquel Welch? Of course I said“Yes” (if you insist). I tried to look com-pletely cool, calm and collected, and hidemy excitement as I was trying to figure outthe safety belts and instruments whileMike opened the hood to hook up the bat-tery. Imagine my disappointment whenMike announced to me that his mechanichad removed the battery from the car andprobably had it locked up in the trailersomewhere. So much for my first DaytonaCoupe drive.

The Shelby Cobra roadster had all theaerodynamics of a worn-out brick. By thistime, Ken Miles and Phil Remington hadmade the roadsters fast, reliable, and hardto beat—except on tracks with extremelylong straightaways, where the aerody-namic advantage of the Ferraris andPorsches came into play. Shelby knew theCobra needed a better shape, and tackingfastback “LeMans” hardtops onto existingroadsters just wasn’t cutting it. Enter

multi-talented master designer PeterBrock with an entirely new body shapestretched over the tried-and-true 289Cobra chassis. The story of how the sixsmall-block and one big-block coupe weredesigned and built has been detailed inthese pages before and is covered in spadesin the SAAC’s Cobra World Registry.

So what is it about the Daytona Coupethat makes it so special? First, of course, israrity: they only built six of them. Theshape of the body is purposeful and exqui-site at the same time. The chassis, thoughoutdated even for its time, had beentweaked and tuned to the point that itworked quite well. The venerable 289 Hi-Po engine, with a few internal Shelby modsand topped off with a brace of four 48IDAWeber carburetors, would sing all day andall night—a combination that, along withthe aerodynamic shape that Brock hadcome up with, made a formidable race carthat was every bit the match for the bestthat Dr. P. and il Commendatore had tooffer.

The magic that Shelby, Brock, Miles,and Remington mixed into the DaytonaCoupe was a recipe for major success forShelby American. Winning the World Man-ufacturer’s Championship in 1965 was thecoup de gras, a feat that no other American

car company was able to repeat. However,a beautiful shape and a stellar racing pedi-gree were not enough to make an instantcollectable out of the Daytona Coupe. Backin the sixties, last year’s race car justdidn’t carry much value. The six beat-up,retired coupes languished in the dark cor-ners of the LAX airport hangars whileFord put pressure on Shelby to work hismagic on the Ford GT40. One by one, theold race cars were sold off.

As the cars aged and the Shelby leg-end grew, the value of all things ShelbyAmerican increased in value. The ShelbyAmerican Automobile Club provided a hubfor Cobra enthusiasts to gather around, todrive their cars on the track, and to un-cover many of the myths and legends sur-rounding the cars and the company,Shelby American.

So, what is a Cobra Daytona Coupeworth these days? Roughly ten times theprice of a nice 427 Cobra roadster. I’d pegit at $10-$15 million but pretty difficult topinpoint because there are so few of them,and the numbers for private sales are sel-dom published. Why is it that the car theybeat at LeMans, the Ferrari 250 GTO, isworth five times what a Daytona Coupegoes for (I believe a recent 250 GTO sold inthe $50M range). The answer is probablyin the numbers: Enzo built 39 GTOs be-tween 1962 and 1964. There were six timesas many Ferrari GTOs as Shelby DaytonaCoupes so it just stands to reason that afleet of 39 race cars can enter (and possiblywin) a lot more races than a fleet of six. Ontop of that, the price of a new Ferrari GTOwas $18,000, or about three times the re-tail price of a 289 Cobra. Next considerthat from 1962 through 1967, there wereonly 998 original Cobras built. Ferrari hassold over 130,000 cars over the years. It issafe to say that, while Cobra owners are anenthusiastic bunch, there are surely moreFerrari collectors out there than Cobra col-lectors.

Shelby knew he needed much morehorsepower to dominate the foreign com-petition on high speed tracks. The answerseemed simple: do the same as the Cobraroadster and stuff Ford’s indomitableNASCAR 427 engine into a coupe. Brockwas again called to task to develop a slip-pery shape for the ultimate racing Cobra –the Super Coupe. Unfortunately, problemswith suppliers and Ford’s increasing pres-sure to make a winner of the Ford GT40MkII (which would have competed, head-to-head with a 427 Cobra Coupe) relegatedthe big-block coupe to a dusty corner of the

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Mike Shoen brought CSX2602 to the first SAACconvention in Oakland. He and his wife,Christa, are pictured [above, right]. Althoughdestiny deprived Burgy of a Coupe drive atSAAC-1, the planets moved into perfect align-ment at SAAC-3 at Ontario Motor Speedway.

Unfinished Business: the 427 “Super Coupe”

Fall 2014 23

shop where it languished, unfinished, foryears. In 1981, I was at the Monterey His-torics when Craig Sutherland brought thecompleted car out for the first time.Sutherland had consulted with PeterBrock, who filled him in on how he hadplanned to finish the car if he had the op-portunity. Over the years, this car haspopped up at a few SAAC Conventions,and, as luck would have it, I was in Scotts-dale in January 2007 when Russo andSteele sold the Super Coupe at auction for$1.32M. Certainly not a record price for aDaytona Cobra Coupe, but then again, thiscar had no racing provenance at all andwas never even completed in the sixties.As the prices of Cobra Coupes with racinghistory continue to escalate, the value ofthis one probably will, too (a rising tidelifts all boats). I don’t think, however, thateven the rarity of Daytona Coupes willever be able to overcome the sheer num-bers and buying power of Ferrari collec-tors.

I’ve been fortunate to live in a timewhen you could see these cars raced on in-ternational racing circuits, driven on the

street and raced at vintage race events be-fore they became so valuable that most ofthem have ended up in museums or pri-vate collections where you have to makean appointment to see one. Thanks to afew enthusiasts like Rob Walton and Dr.Fred Simeone, it’s still possible to get anopportunity every once-in-awhile to seeone of these magnificent machines snarland spit raw fuel out of their side pipeslike it’s 1965 all over again.

– Jim KreuzI sent an e-mail to Rob Walton two

years ago with a request to spend sometime with him and his Cobra DaytonaCoupe, CSX2286. In the back of my mind Iwas praying that after we met, Waltonwould offer me the opportunity to take his$7M+ Coupe, one of only six, for a spinaround the block. My theory was never tobe afraid to dream big. Well, I never heardback from him and for all I know he mayhave never received my e-mail. But thisexperience is still at the top of my bucketlist and I haven’t given up yet.

My wife, Kelle, asked the obvious non-SAAC member question: “What’s the bigdeal about these six race cars?” I repliedwith two facts even she couldn’t dispute.The Historic Vehicle Association recentlymade the Cobra Daytona Coupe its first in-ductee into the National Historical VehicleRegister. The selling prices realized in thepast 15 years are proof of the cars’ leg-endary—and historical—status. Kellepressed me, wanting to know why I was soenthralled with a car that only had twoseats and no radio. Understandable if yourperspective is, “a car is a car.”

For me, putting these six cars on thetop of the summit boils down to two rea-sons. First is their overall appearance: thecar’s classic shape, after fifty years, stillturns the heads of all generations. There isno doubt it is a race car. An auto enthusiastwill not confuse it with any other make ormodel. Neither will Kelle. I also love thechoice of colors, common to all six in theirfinal year of competition: Guardsman Bluewith white stripes.

The second reason the Daytona Coupeis special comes from a feeling of pride inour fellow countrymen for succeedingagainst all odds. The Coupe was built by asmall, under-funded group of Americans inan unbelievably tight time frame, and theydidn’t let that stop them from beating the

The SHELBY AMERICAN

1981

2007

Top of the Bucket List

Fall 2014 24

deep-pocketed, enormously favored Ferrariteam for the 1965 FIA World Champi-onship. No one gave Shelby American aglimmer of hope in beating the Italians.But beat them they did.

If you want proof that the DaytonaCoupes are automotive superstars the auc-tion results don’t lie. Yet, when ShelbyAmerican retired them at the end of the1965 season, their popularity was justabout at rock bottom. No one jumped atthe initial $6,000 asking price and all wereultimately sold for around $4,000—lessthan the list price of a 289 Cobra street car.

Before anyone scoffs at what fools wewere for not snatching up one of these dia-monds-in-the-rough, keep in mind that sixgrand was over 80 percent of the startingannual salary of a chemical engineer($7,300) at that time, and three times thecost of a new 1965 Ford Mustang. The av-erage cost of a new home was $13,600 (pic-ture one in San Francisco, Los Angeles orin a New York City bedroom community),or 44 percent of what you would have paidfor one of those used race cars. Which, bythe way, were no longer competitive in theU.S. Who wants a race car you can’t race?

A retired racing Ferrari 250GTO couldhave been purchased for slightly more—$7,000—in that same time frame. Allthree, the Coupe, the real estate and theFerrari, are worth a ton of money today. Ididn’t foresee this, but it wouldn’t havemattered. At that time I was eight yearsshy of a driver’s license, and $5,995 shortof the purchase price of the Coupe.

Below is a chart that tracks the aver-age selling price of Daytona Coupes alongwith the thirty-nine Ferrari 250 GTOs pro-duced from 1962 to 1964.

My conclusion of this comparison? Itwill be more impressive to tell your fellowcountry club members that you own a Fer-rari than a Cobra Daytona Coupe. Keep inmind that it takes two people to make anitem valuable, but only one to make it de-sirable.

My fascination with these six Guards-man Blue and white striped-fastbackCoupes goes deeper than the aluminumskin. I’ve been more intrigued with its 90-day creation schedule and its creator. Un-derstanding that his Cobra would have tobe faster on the European tracks, Carroll

Shelby turned to a young automobile de-signer in his employ, Peter Brock. Shelbygave him a wrecked Cobra and 90-daydeadline to come up with a faster versionof the Cobra. And he did. You and I cannotcomprehend the enormity of this task butwe can both appreciate it.

A 1963 Corvette Daytona Coupe? TheCobra Coupe almost never was. The car’s21 year-old designer, Peter Brock, had ini-tially proposed the radical, chopped-tailutilized on the Cobra Daytona Coupe inlate 1957 to the General Motors VP of De-sign, Bill Mitchell, for inclusion in whatwas to be the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray.Mitchell declined, opting for a more stylishBrock sketch that resulted in the finalproduct. Six years later Brock took thechopped tail idea he had seen in a late1930’s German wind drag study and ap-plied it to his Cobra design.

With help from Shelby American fab-ricator John Ohlsen, a New Zealander, thedamaged Cobra, CSX2014, was used as theplatform to carry the plywood coupe bodybuck. A bare chassis, CSX2287, became thefirst actual Coupe. The gracefully curvedroof, rear sloping glass and chopped-offrear was all Brock’s. Two words describethe creation of the Daytona Cobra, as it be-came known in the Shelby American shopin Venice, California: sheer genius. But notbefore it proved itself when Ken Milesdrove it at Riverside. Initially it was called“Brock’s Folly” by the other race fabrica-tors and mechanics in the shop. Convincedhe was right, Brock ignored them. Milesvindicated him the first time he drove thecar and the opinion of everyone in the shopturned like a school of fish. No wonderSAAC has Brock placed on a pedestal. I, forone, think it needs to be shimmed up a fewfeet.

If Hollywood makes the movie of PeterBrock’s life, I wonder how these two sceneswill play out: Carroll Shelby hands Brockthe wrecked Cobra and 90-day ultimatum,and later, lavishes his 27 year-old designerwith praise after Ken Miles’ practice runsat Riverside. Let’s just hope they don’t for-get to include Phil Remington, using tin-snips to cut a strip of aluminum and rivetit to the Coupe’s tail at Spa to give the carstability on the high-speed straightaways.Coupes were able to top 190 mph, whereasthe roadsters peaked at ‘only’ 160 mph.

Every engineer (in my other life I ama chemical engineer) dreams of designingsomething new that will revolutionizetheir industry, exactly what Brock hasdone throughout his life. Anyone whothinks of accomplishing such things atsuch an early stage in their life is justdreaming. Yet at age 27, Peter Brock, hadalready been a member of the GM Stylingteam that was credited with the stunning1963 Corvette Stingray design and wasabout to add a World Manufacturer’sChampionship to his resume. While work-ing at Shelby American, his best yearswould still be ahead of him. Simply amaz-ing.

Note: Jim Kreuz considers himself aminority SAAC member (he is the ownerof a 1966 Hertz GT350 clone) possessing amajority SAAC member dream: to spendsome quality time with Peter Brock andalso to drive a real Daytona Coupe. Brockdoesn’t exactly live the cloistered life of ahermit. His schedule would exhaust theRolling Stones, so this part is doable. Driv-ing someone’s Coupe, not so much but bothremain near the top of his bucket list. If ei-ther ever come to be, he promises we’ll bethe first to read about them on thesepages.

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Year

1965

1969

1973

1980

1995

1997

2000

2009

Daytona Coupe

$4,500

$5,100

$12,500

$140,000

$1,200,000

$3,000,000

$4,300,000

$7,250,000

Ferrari GTO

$7,000

$6,000

$17,500

$190,000

$3,500,000

$6,000,000

$7,000,000

$26,000,000

Fall 2014 25

— Howard PardeeThe pulpy pages of Competition Press

and slick pages of Sports Car Graphic toldthe stories of the racing Daytona Coupesthroughout 1964 and 1965. Peter Brock’sCoupe was on the highest rung of theShelby American Cobra ladder. Their his-tory was pretty well known but back thenvirtually no one knew anything about theirserial numbers or what had become ofthem after they stopped racing. Wherethey were and who owned them were ques-tions that just never seemed to come intothe mind of most Shelby owners and en-thusiasts.

In the early 1970s the Cobra Club wasbeing run by Bruce Jodar of Grosse PointeShores, Michigan. The club, numberingabout 400 members, had held modestmeets at places like Watkins Glen, RoadAmerica, Mid-Ohio, Summit Point andRiverside Raceway. I was a non-Cobraowing member of the club (there were ahandful of us) but I not attended any ofthese events. When it was announced thatthere would be a Cobra Club meet nearerto my home, in Connecticut, I was thrilledto be able to answer that call. After all, atthis time virtually no one outside of Cali-fornia had ever seen a Cobra on the road.I had spotted a 427 Cobra around 1970,the only one I had seen since visiting theshowroom of Larsen Ford where one wasdisplayed in 1965. Finally, I was going tosee some Cobras!

The morning of the event was cloudywhen I started the two-hour trip from Wa-terford, Connecticut to Millbrook, NewYork in my '65 GT350. It would be hostedby the Cobra guru of the East Coast,Carter Gette. It rained a good part of the

trip, but not hard and the roads were onlydamp when I got into New York state.

The event was held on an estate onthe top of a mountain with a 360-degreeview of the surrounding area. As I drove upthe long, winding driveway and saw thehouse, I knew that I was in way over myeconomic head. The house was on the leftand garages and outbuildings were on theright and I drove through a portico be-tween them. Parked on the grass beside ahuge circle was Gette's 427 SOHC Cobrawith a reputed 646 horsepower Holman-Moody engine. What a great start!

I was the first one to arrive and afterCarter and I talked for short time, he saidthat we should get the other cars out. Heopened one garage door to reveal a beauti-ful, blue 289 Cobra which I believe wasCSX2491. He started it up, pulled it out,and parked it near his 427. Then hewalked to another garage and swung openthe door to reveal a ... DAYTONA COUPE.I had never dreamed of seeing one in per-son!

He didn't want to start it up, so heasked if I would help him get it out of thegarage. Try to stop me. Carter attached arope under the front and instructed mewhere to push on the rear. As we slowlyinched the car forward it was moving a lit-tle faster than I was. When I was at abouta forty-five degree angle to the ground be-hind the car I hit an oil slick underneaththe car. My feet would not move fastenough to catch up with the car and Iquickly fell into the middle of the oil pud-dle, scraping the skin off both of my handsand elbows and ripping a hole in one kneeof my Levis. I also bruised both of my kneecaps. Trying to maintain decorum in thepresence of such a great car, I got to myfeet quickly and resumed pushing the caroutside, acting like nothing had happened.

Skinned, bruised and bloody with ahole in my Levis and a oil stain on theother knee, I was a mess for the rest of theday. Did I care? Hell no! I got to touch aDaytona Coupe. It was, to that point, oneof the highlights of my life!

More members pulled in with theirCobras and 5S350 was joined by 6S118owned by Rick Kopec and 6S237 owned byTom Apuzzo. We Shelby owners were di-rected to park unobtrusively off to the side,out of the Cobra limelight. This was, afterall, a Cobra Club event.

The Daytona was serial numberCSX2601 and I later found out that it wasactually owned by famed racer Rob Dyson.The event was held at what turned out tobe his father’s estate. Carter was living inthe gardener’s cottage, an outbuilding nearthe garages and had received orders not tostart the car. No matter. From that day onthe Daytona Coupe and I were joined atthe hip— if only for a few short, painfulminutes.

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Touched by a Coupe...and Vice Versa

Fall 2014 26

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Coincidence? Don’t even ask... Rightafter last issue’s article on Kiwi TerryCollins’ story about his adventures atSAAC-39, he reported that the November2014 issue of NZ V8 magazine traced thecareer of John Ohlsen, a fabricator whowent to work for Shelby American in 1964.Just in time for our Daytona Coupe issue.

When he went to work at ShelbyAmerican Ohlsen was tasked with doing alot of the metalwork on the DaytonaCoupes. Ohlsen did the welding onCSX2287’s chassis and did most of thecar’s assembly. He accompanied the car toDaytona for its first race and he was, un-fortunately, the one under the back of thecar when the infamous fire occurred. Hewas burned but not seriously. When he gotback to work, Ohlsen went to CarrozerriaGran Sport in Modena, Italy when the restof the Coupe chassis were sent to be fin-ished off by Italian panelbeaters.

In 1984 Ohlsen began building a Day-tona Coupe from scratch. He passed awayin 1998, before he was able to complete itin his New Zealand automotive shop but itwas completed by his son Paul. The carwas “approved” by Carroll Shelby and pur-chased by SAAC member Jay Russell fromNorthridge, California.

Kiwi Coupe

Ohlsen is under the car and a heartbeat later fuel spills onto a hot brake caliper and, “Whoof!” The sequence was captured by Shelby American pho-tographer Dave Friedman, at exactly the right place at the right time. The photos have seen wide publication, both then and over the years since.

Fall 2014 27

The movie “Shelby Goes Racing WithFord” was filmed in early 1965. It con-tained footage shot at Shelby American of427 Cobras and GT350 R-Models being as-sembled, Ken Miles, Peter Brock and DanGurney driving at the Carroll ShelbySchool of High Performance Driving atWillow Springs, Daytona Coupes beingprepared for Daytona and Sebring (in Feb-ruary and March) and some race footagefilmed at Daytona and Sebring. The moviewas about twenty minutes long and at thetime it did not make much of a splash. Thecars were new at that time and the newsthey were making was recent. The filmwent into Ford’s archives and copies alsowent into Goodyear’s film archives. In thelate 1960s and 1970s, movies in thesearchives could be borrowed by individualsand groups such as teachers, sports carclubs or boy scout troops.

About ten years later the film sur-faced at the second Shelby Owners Associ-ation national convention in Reading,Pennsylvania. It was in 16mm format andwas being used at a driver’s educationclass in Tulsa public high schools. Formany enthusiasts, this was the first timethey had seen a Daytona Coupe or aGT350 R-Model in action. Prior to seeingthis movie their experience had beenpretty much limited to period sports carmagazines or Shelby American black-and-white 8˝x10˝ press photos. For some it wasan epiphany.

There were nuggets in almost everyscene. There were about 400 people watch-ing the film at the SOA convention. Youcould hear a pin drop. When Shelby movedto a 427 Cobra sitting on jackstands and

leaned on the fender, there was an audiblemoan from the audience. The second halfof the movie used race footage from Day-tona and Sebring that year. The Sebringrace began with a traditional LeMansStart. Cars were angled along the pit sideof the track, in the order they qualified.Drivers were lined up opposite their carson the other side of the track. A starter’spistol was fired and drivers sprinted acrossthe track. They jumped into their cars,started them up and took off down thetrack. Things happened quickly and withall of the noise and motion the camera, setup far enough back to catch the entirestart in the frame, caught what looked liketwo cars coming together. But it lasted lessthan the blink of an eye.

A later sequence caught a Daytona Coupewith its rear corner bashed in. At the time,when most enthusiasts had never seen aDaytona Coupe in the flesh, the accidentwas considered something of a sacrilege.

The only actual “evidence” of this accidentwas the movie footage and a few black-and-white race photos taken as the raceprogressed. However, as we cast a drag netfor Daytona Coupe photos that had notgotten wide usage, Peter Brock put us intocontact with photographer Dave Nicholas.He was at Sebring and had taken a seriesof photos at the start of the race when aVolvo ran into the back of Ed Leslie’s Day-tona Coupe, #12, when Leslie had stalledit. We appreciate Dave’s sharing his photoswith us.

The SHELBY AMERICAN

THE SEBRING CRUNCH

Dave Nicholas captured the race’s start from the side of the track opposite the pits. Coupe #12(CSX2300) enters the fray [above]. Nicholas missed the actual point of impact when the Volvo rea-ended Leslie pulls. He immediately pulled his Coupe to the side of the track, putting some distancebetween it and the Volvo [below]. Note Coupe #16, CSX2602, which had trouble starting.

Fall 2014 28

The SHELBY AMERICAN

Leslie bails out as smoke starts coming out from under the hood. Before he even gets to the pit wall Phil Remington has reached the car and beginsunlatching the bonnet. Crew member Jack Hoare sprints to the other side of the bonnet.

This view shows car #16, CSX2602, driven by Lew Spencer/John Timanus/Rick Muther. The entire rest of the field has yet to complete the first lap.

More never seen Nicholas photos. CSX2602 during practice (headlightcovers and driving lights were still taped.

CSX2299 driven by Jo Schlesser/Bob Bondurant during the legendarydownpour.

A quick shot with the dry chemical fire extinguisher put the fire out but created a lot of white smoke. Once the drama is over Remington tightenedthe fuel line and Leslie returned to the cockpit. He started a lap down.

Fall 2014 29