Photo: Mecum
One of the best moves Ford has ever made at a business level was to tap Carroll Shelby to head one of the most ambitious racing programs the industry had ever seen. The tie-up between the two was beneficial for the carmaker, the designer, and ultimately the world, as some of the greatest cars ever made had Shelby written all over them.
Before the historic Le Mans fight against Ferrari was of course the Shelby Cobra, aka the AC Cobra. The car is the result of an unlikely fusion between the body and chassis of a light sports car made in the UK and the V8s American carmakers are famous for. The line of Cobras started with chassis number CSX2000 in 1962, a car that would spawn over the following two years nearly 600 offsprings.
The Cobra 289 we have in the gallery above is one of them. Initially ordered by Ford itself to be used as an exhibition vehicle, it quickly found its way onto the track and the drag strips, being even serviced at one point during its career (in the hands of a North Carolina racer) by an all-female pit crew.
The 289 is scheduled to go under the hammer this summer, as part of the Mecum Indianapolis sale. It will do so as a restored vehicle, the result of 12 years of hard work that ended in 2018, which saw it brought back to its former self, from the Guardsman Blue paint to the extruded rear wings fitted there to accommodate wider tires and an added roll bar. As its name says, the car hides under the hood the iconic 289ci (4.7-liter) engine, linked to a 4-speed manual transmission.
There is no estimate as to how much the car is expected to fetch during the auction, but this type of car is known to go for big bucks, especially when it sells complete with “an event program signed by the late Carroll Shelby.”
The Cobra 289 we have in the gallery above is one of them. Initially ordered by Ford itself to be used as an exhibition vehicle, it quickly found its way onto the track and the drag strips, being even serviced at one point during its career (in the hands of a North Carolina racer) by an all-female pit crew.
The 289 is scheduled to go under the hammer this summer, as part of the Mecum Indianapolis sale. It will do so as a restored vehicle, the result of 12 years of hard work that ended in 2018, which saw it brought back to its former self, from the Guardsman Blue paint to the extruded rear wings fitted there to accommodate wider tires and an added roll bar. As its name says, the car hides under the hood the iconic 289ci (4.7-liter) engine, linked to a 4-speed manual transmission.
There is no estimate as to how much the car is expected to fetch during the auction, but this type of car is known to go for big bucks, especially when it sells complete with “an event program signed by the late Carroll Shelby.”
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