This is just one of those stories that you have to pass on. If you are a car
enthusiast and have a pulse you have heard of the legendary Cobra Daytona
Coupe. Pete Brock designed an aerodynamic coupe body for Carroll Shelby's 289
Cobra to make it more competitive in international sports car racing. Only six
cars were built and they won the 1965 Manufacturers Championship beating arch
rival Ferrari.
Well, back in the old days there was nothing less valuable than an old race car
and the Daytonas were sold off after Shelby stopped racing. These cars were
sold for anywhere from $4500 to $6500 between 1965 and 1967. Don't you wish you
were smart enough to pick up one of those puppies back then?
The cars were mostly used as street cars by their new owners and changed hands
several times over the years eventually ending up in the hands of collectors as
the interest in vintage race cars rose in the '70s and '80s. That is except for
one car that kind of disappeared.
CSX2287 was the first, or prototype Daytona Coupe. Its last racing stint was at
Bonneville where Shelby American used the car to set 23 international class
records. At the end of the run the car was pretty beat. It was cleaned up and
sold in 1965 to Jim Russell who owned a company that manufactured slot cars
called Russkit. He used the car as a pattern for one of his slot cars and drove
it occasionally. Russell sold it in 1968 to record producer Phil Spector who
used it as a street car. Brings new meaning to "the wall of sound". Spector
sold it in 1971 to a guy named John O'Hara. He used the car little and the
stored it away somewhere in Santa Ana, Ca. As interest in these car rose,
buyers would seek out O'Hara and offer to buy the car but he always wanted to
much or just wouldn't listen. Somewhere along the way he lost the car in a
divorce. Mrs. O'Hara wasn't any easier to try and deal with. One Cobra
enthusiast who tracked her down described having a 30 minute conversation
through a screen door that went no where. One person who got to see the car
described it as being in pretty sad shape and deteriorating.
Flash forward to last night when an automotive writer friend calls and tells me
that the mysterious Mrs. O'Hara had died and that the owner of the building
where the car was stored claimed to have a letter from Mrs. O'Hara giving him
the car in lieu of storage fees. Well it's all in the courts now as to who owns
the car. I Don't know if Mrs. O'Hara has any heirs so the car may end up
auctioned off by the state. Some of the details may be a little off but the
gist of it is true. This may be the last great "barn find".
Cheers,
Kurt Oblinger (wishing my name was O'Hara)
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