HISTORY

THE SHELBY DAYTONA COBRA COUPE

THE DAYTONA SPORTS CARS COUPE

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'The Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe'

The lesser known of Carrol Shelby's famous Cobra's, the Cobra Coupe was born in 1964, primarily because of the aerodynamic limitations of the 289 Cobra's.

With its open cockpit and upright windshield, the Cobra's hit an aerodynamic wall at 157mph, and on a track like LeMans with it's long straight, Shelby's cars were not slippery enough to keep up with the dominating Ferraris. Interestingly, given modern aerodynamic knowledge, it was argued within the team that a coupe body would be heavier, and therefore slower.

Young designer Peter Brock provided Shelby with sketches for a sleek coupe body, and within weeks, the body was formed, and fitted to the existing Cobra chassis.

Powered by the same 289 Ford engine, the new aerodynamically superior body allowed what was essentially the same open Cobra to reach speeds up to 186mph down LeMans Mulsanne Straight. A huge gain, and enough to really test Ferrari. The Daytona's saw instant success, and won many races during their short racing career in 1964-65.

So immediate and significant was success of the Daytona Coupe in that Enzo Ferrari was instrumental in having the last 1964 FIA World Sports Car round at Monza cancelled, sensing a championship loss to Shelby's new coupe

The abrupt end to the Cobra Daytona Coupe's factory backed racing life came from Ford deciding to invest in the GT40 project rather than the Cobra. During the cross over period, it's interesting to note that a Cobra Coupe never lost a race to a GT40.

Only six Cobra Daytona Coupe's were ever produced, one in America and five in Italy, and no two were alike. The roofline of the cars a significant difference, with the Italian built cars featuring a much flatter roof and more upright windscreen than that of the American built cars (and as a result were some 15 M.P.H. slower).

The Cobra Daytona Coupes are often referred to by their chassis numbers and the major achievement of that particular vehicle;

CSX 2287 – “The Prototype”
CSX 2299 – “The Le Mans Winner”
CSX 2300 – “Ford of France Coupe”
CSX 2601 – “The Championship Coupe”
CSX 2602 – “The Filipinette Coupe”
CSX 2286 – “The Last Coupe”

In American racing livery, the Cobra Daytona Coupes wore Viking Blue (light blue), Viking Blue with thin white GT stripes, or Guardsman Blue (dark blue) with thick white GT stripes. The distinctive Kamm tail was often painted in half blue, half white.

In French racing livery, CSX 2300 wore White paint with Red and Blue stripes

In Swiss racing livery, CSX 2602 wore Red paint with White stripes.

The Cobra Daytona Coupe's Driver's line-up reads like a who's who of 60's race driving talent, with Chris Amon, Bob Bondurant, Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Dave MacDonald, Jochen Neerpasch, and Jo Schlesser, just some of the men to have 'peddled' Carrol Shelby's iconic Cobra.

'The Daytona Sports Cars Coupe'

Daytona Sports Cars Pty Ltd is more or less the by-product of a retirement project for Richard Bendell, the man behind fuel injection and data logging company, MoTeC.

A long time fan of the original cars curvaceous and muscular design, Richard imported a fibreglass body in from America, with the intent of using it for his own car project.

Upon it's arrival, and subsequent inspection, the 'boat builder' quality of the fibreglass, and the very questionable symmetry of the body, Richard, with the help of his son James, decided to scrap the body, and used it as the basis of a new buck.

Over the following 12 months, the main body, bonnet and doors were shaped, in keeping with the 'American made' bodies. (see History – The Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe) After painting, polishing and waxing, moulds of the highest quality moulding resin were produced from the patterns, by expert mould maker Richard Struthers of Cobrax Composites.

During the time between the de-moulding of the patterns, and the production of new glass fibre parts, the prototype chassis was in the final stages of its construction. Chassis design drawings had been provided by Ross Holder of Deep Thought Engineering, with input from Michael Borland of Borland Racing and Richard Bendell.

Following a successful fit up of engine and drivetrain, suspension, bodywork et al, production jigs were then constructed by Michael Borland. A swift complete assembly followed, with the car signed off literally hours before its public and race debut at Targa Tasmania 2001.

A challenging event at the best of times, and with limited preparation, and poor advice on tires, The Daytona Sports Cars Coupe ultimately came unstuck on Day 4 of the rally. Data retrieved from the MoTeC E.C.U. showed that a loss of rear wheel traction was to blame. The section of road the car was competing on was wet, and of particular note, the centre white line had been re-painted so often that it was considerably higher than the road surface. The application of the throttle as the car crested the smooth white line, just bad timing. The car clipped a tree on its front right, spun 360 on its own length and nosed into a bank. Both the driver, Richard Bendell, and his navigator son James, walked uninjured from the car, which was later revealed (again from MoTeC data) to have suffered a negative 7G hit. Not a glorious debut for the car, but proof positive of the cars design and construction strength.

Over the following years, the Daytona Sports Cars factory race car has had few revisions, and in fact, subsequent chassis are still built to its original design. It has competed in over 100 race meetings, finishing 1st in the 2003 Tourist Trophy at Phillip Island with Adam Macrow at the wheel. Rex Broadbent and Michael Goedheer have driven it to three Top Ten results at Targa Tasmania, 4th Outright their best in 2005, and 5th in 2004. Rex has also finished 3rd at The Mt Buller Sprint, and Peter Brock posted a 2nd Outright at the 2006 Lake Mountain Sprint, and finishing 12th Outright, after running 5th at the 2006 Targa Tasmania, the last two days driven with only forth gear.
Daytona Sports Cars commitment to race car development, has seen the construction of a new factory race car. Following the passing of Peter Brock, the team retired from competition for a year, but have since made a return to racing where they started out; Targa Tasmania.

2007 saw the 2nd factory car make it's way around Tasmania, again with Richard Bendell at the wheel, this time teaming up with his brother John. Despite a careful and relaxed drive the 'happy amateurs' were sidelined by a defective drive-by-wire motor.