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Shelby's Cobras
World GT ChampionHowever, it was in the international FIA GT Manufacturers' Championship that the Shelby Cobras really made a name for themselves. The FIA championship was a series of 12-13 endurance races that began at Daytona and Sebring, Florida, and then moved to Europe for events on some of the most famous tracks in the world -- Le Mans, France; Spa, Belgium; Nurburgring, Germany; Monza, Italy; and others. The series ended back in the U.S., at Bridgehampton, New York. This series would pit the up-start Americans against the finest factory teams in the world -- Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Alfa Romeo. Shelby tested the waters at four FIA races in 1963, with the Cobra roadster placing 4th in GT class at Daytona, 6th in GT class at Sebring, 4th in GT class at the 24-Hours of Le Mans, and 1st and 2nd in GT class at Bridgehampton. The attack on Europe began in earnest in 1964, with a full Shelby team at every event. However, it had became apparent during 1963 that the Cobra roadster simply wasn't aerodynamic enough to compete with Ferrari and the other European teams on the faster tracks. So, Shelby designer, Pete Brock, came up with a streamlined coupe body to replace the roadster shell.
The new Cobra Daytona Coupe made its debut at the Daytona 2000 Km. race in February 1962, and immediately ran away from the favored Ferraris. As with the first race for the Cobra roadster in 1962, only bad luck (in this case a pit fire) kept the Cobra Daytona from winning its very first race. The Cobra Daytona, however, won in the GT class at the next race, the 12-Hours of Sebring, and also won in GT class at the 24-Hours of Le Mans and the Oulton Park 500 Km. race. Cobra roadsters, racing on the slower tracks, won GT honors at the Freiburg and Sierra Montana Hillclimbs. By September 1965, Cobra and Ferrari were in a virtual dead heat for the championship ... then the unthinkable happened! The next race on the schedule was the Monza 1000 Km., an event that favored the streamlined Cobra Daytona. With defeat on home soil and in the championship a very real possibility, Enzo Ferrari put political pressure on the FIA to drop the Monza race from the series calendar. With only two races left -- the multi-race/rally Tour de France (almost impossible for the understaffed Shelby team to win) and the series finale at Bridgehampton -- Cobra's chances of a championship were all but gone. The Shelby team didn't give up, however, and mounted a credible attempt at the Tour de France, although all four factory Cobra Daytonas failed to finish. At least the season ended with an unprecedented 1-2-3-4-5-6 finish by Cobra roadsters in the Bridgehampton 500 Km. race. The final points standings were: Ferrari - 84.6 points and Cobra - 78.3 points! For 1965, Shelby was ready for Ferrari. More Cobra Daytona Coupes were built, and they were tested and refined into almost unstoppable racing machines. Cobra won GT class honors in 9 of that year's 12 races and placed 2nd in GT class in 2 more. Shelby's Cobra became the first American car to become World GT Champion, beating Ferrari by a whopping 124.9 points to 61.6 points!
A secret weapon that Carroll Shelby and Peter Brock had started to construct for the 1965 season wasn't needed in the war against Ferrari. This secret weapon was a Cobra "super coupe" that was to have a 427 cubic engine and redesigned aerodynamics. The "super coupe" wasn't completed until it was bought by a collector in 1970. It has since appeared in vintage car races.
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1996-2008 Arnold E.
van Beverhoudt, Jr.
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