Back in September of 1961, engineer and 1959 Le Mans winner Caroll Shelby sent a letter to the management of small British sportscar factory AC Cars. Having witnessed the relative successes of their svelte Ace sportscar, Shelby had become convinced it would be the ideal base for a fire-breathing V8-powered GT-racer.

Back in the US, sportscars didn't actually exist during that time, as The Big Three car companies focused solely on immense chrome battleships with ever longer options lists and increasingly large engines. Ironically, America was home to a fanatical hot-rodding and racing culture, causing the vacuum to be filled by European firms like MG, Triumph and Alfa Romeo.

The Bristol-powered Ace had made a lasting impression on Carroll Shelby. The Bristol-powered Ace had made a lasting impression on Carroll Shelby.

William and Charles Hurlock of AC welcomed the Texan's plans, but tasked him with finding the engine. The Hurlocks realized their ancient Bristol straight six, which was in reality a licensed pre-war BMW design, had been long overdue a replacement. Shelby's ambitious effort was just what the company needed.

The first ever Cobra under construction. The first ever Cobra under construction.

Shelby shopped around for engines for a while, contacting Chevrolet first. However, the popular manufacturer failed to see a use for the Ace, as it would get in the way of the company's own Corvette.

After being rejected, Shelby simply waltzed over to their direct competitor: Ford. With no real sportscar to speak of as the Thunderbird had become a fat four seater like any other car, the boys of the Blue Oval were more than willing to support Shelby in taking the Corvette down.

Chassis CSX2000 still exists today. Chassis CSX2000 still exists today.

With all the pieces in place, production of the new AC Cobra began in January 1962, as the first chassis was completed in Shelby's Los Angeles workshop after a long flight from the AC factory in Thames Ditton.

Initially slated to run a 3.6L version of Ford's new compact Windsor V8, and named the Ace 3.6, the car evolved into the 260 ci (4.3L) Cobra 260, before gaining the 289 (4.7L) engine later in the production run. As the car now finally had a competitive powerplant, Shelby set about modifying the Cobra for racing.

The crude hardtop Cobra was no match for the sophisticated Ferrari 250 GTO. The crude hardtop Cobra was no match for the sophisticated Ferrari 250 GTO.

Unsurprisingly, Shelby ran into quite a few problems with the car. The engine swap had left him with a very powerful machine and an incredibly sloppy chassis combined with piss poor aerodynamic properties.

With the underpowered Bristol engine fitted these issues were manageable, but the big V8 upset the handling much further and propelled the Cobra to speeds it wasn't exactly very comfortable with. Extensive strengthening of the chassis could only do so much, and the hastily constructed hardtop failed to solve the car's immense drag.

Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari were about to unleash fire and fury the likes of which Le Mans had never seen before. Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari were about to unleash fire and fury the likes of which Le Mans had never seen before.

Luckily though, the Cobra had just become part the first stage of a furious racing war to be waged on the European scene. Henry Ford II, president of the Ford Motor Company, had been dreaming of seeing Ford win at Le Mans.

At around the same time, word came through the grapevine that Enzo Ferrari was looking for a large car firm to back his company. Ford jumped at the opportunity and started a long and expensive process of audits and and legal negotiations, reportedly costing millions of dollars.

Deep into negotiations, Il Commendatore suddenly cut Ford off, angry at the Americans' insistence on running the racing arm of his business as well, including open wheel racing. Ferrari wished to win the Indianapolis 500, the only major race that had eluded him, but since Ford was a big name in Indycar racing and liked to keep it that way, the deal collapsed.

The Daytona finally brought Shelby close to the pesky prancing horses. The Daytona finally brought Shelby close to the pesky prancing horses.

Infuriated, Henry Ford II vowed to crush Ferrari under his mighty blue boots. He was hellbent on driving the scarlet menace out of Le Mans competition forever, in every class imaginable. To this end he acquired an obscure but highly advanced mid-engined prototype by Lola, and pumped massive amounts of funds into Carroll Shelby's Cobra program.

With Ford dollars coming out the wazoo, Shelby and his brilliant 24-year old designer Pete Brock were able to completely rethink the Cobra. Drawing out the lines with a piece of chalk on the dusty shop floor at Shelby American, Pete Brock and chassis specialist Bob Negstad unwittingly created a legend.

The 1964 season was a near miss for Shelby. The 1964 season was a near miss for Shelby.

A swooping, compact design, the Daytona Coupe managed to cure all the Cobra's foibles in one take. A series of high-profile GT-class victories followed, including Sebring and even Le Mans, but the Daytona failed to secure the title. Pipped by Ferrari with just a two point difference, Shelby had narrowly failed to live up to Ford's expectations.

“Next year, Ferrari’s ass is mine!” Carroll Shelby.

Type 65 sitting in Shelby's lot. Type 65 sitting in Shelby's lot.

Because his 289-powered design had missed out on absolute victory, Pete Brock immediately turned his attention to a successor to blow Ferrari out of the water for good. He based his efforts around Ford's enormous FE-series 427 ci (7.0L) V8, which had just been fitted to the second generation Cobra.

In racing spec, this engine had first been used in NASCAR competition, before finding its way to the ludicrous Galaxie 500 "Lightweight" drag racer/touring car, Can Am racing and finally the ongoing Ford GT40 program. Brock took full advantage of the substantial 100 horsepower increase, confident the 485 horsepower 427 would be able to shove the car up to a speed of 215 miles per hour (346 kph).

The 427 roadster formed the base of Brock's new superweapon. The 427 roadster formed the base of Brock's new superweapon.

At first, Brock took the swift and simple approach to improving the Daytona by having an existing 289-powered car (CSX2601) swapped with the 427, as this bare chassis was being fitted with the standard Daytona body at specialist firm Carrozzeria Gransport in Modena, Italy.

However, one of its older sisters (CSX2300) was damaged during transport to the Tour de France. As there were only six Coupe's, Shelby then called CSX2601 to active service before the big block could be fitted, throwing a wrench in Brock's short-term plans.

The quad-carb 427 allowed Pete Brock to think much bigger. The quad-carb 427 allowed Pete Brock to think much bigger.

Opting to start over from a clean sheet with the 427 roadster chassis as a base, Brock incorporated independent coil spring suspension, giving the car a definite handling advantage over the transverse leaf spring Daytona's.

In an effort to take full advantage of the extra grunt, Pete Brock decided to stretch, flatten and widen the general shape of the car, creating an very unusual silhouette. The nose was more rounded and contained extra driving lights, and the whole front section flowed into the rest of the car in a natural curve.

The roof on the other hand had been significantly squared, flattened and lowered compared to the older car. Additionally, it featured a strange sunroof panel, ostensibly to improve visibility on the high banks of Daytona. A large rear window then tapered down into the car's most distinctive feature: its experimental Kamm-tail.

This design feature was first theorized by Dr. Wunibald Kamm, and served to reduce drag and lift thanks to an abruptly cut-off tail section. Other than the aerodynamic advantage, the tail section also included a opening for an oil cooler, space for the mandatory full spare wheel, and two sizable fuel filler openings.

Now that the design had been drawn up, the time had come to actually build the car. Brock and Shelby planned to send chassis CSX3054 over to Italy like the other coupe's, as Gransports highly skilled workers were sure to get the job done to absolute perfection. The only real drawback was the rather lackluster pace at which that particular artistry usually moved.

Nevertheless, the Super Coupe would never get to see the sun-kissed countryside of Modena. Instead, it was plonked right in the middle of dreary old Britain. Thanks to Ford-appointed general manager of Shelby American, Peyton Cramer, the Super Coupe was instead given to Harold Ratford's bodyshop just outside London.

Pete Brock (left) sculpting a clay model of the Super Coupe. Pete Brock (left) sculpting a clay model of the Super Coupe.

Ratford had been making a bit of a mess of the GT40's he'd been hired to construct, as he was far behind schedule. Cramer was sent by Ford to find out what the hold-up was exactly, and while talking to Ratford he happened to mention the Super Coupe in passing.

Harold Ratford, knowing the valuable GT40-contract was at risk, offered to build the car for a fraction of the cost and in much less time than Carozzeria Gransport could do, as long as Cramer didn't take away the GT40's. Both Carroll Shelby and Pete Brock were less than enthusiastic about the idea, but realized it was likely their only chance, as the GT40 effort was commanding more and more attention from Ford.

Brock sent all his sketches, technical drawings and a quarter size clay model over to London, and hoped for the best. Radford kept the Shelby crew up to date with regular progress reports, but something still felt fishy.

One day a Shelby employee found himself in the UK and decided to head out to Radford to gauge the car's progress. What he found demoralized him to the core. Not only were Radford's panel beaters miles off their production target, what they had done was completely appalling.

Because he had his best men on the GT40 project, Harold Radford had set his B-team loose on the Super Coupe. The end result was a much bigger, much heavier car that ignored a vast number of Brock's design parameters, and was built with the wrong materials.

Shelby and Brock were then called over by the employee to assess the damage, and were similarly horrified. The pair contemplated abandoning the botched project altogether, but persevered knowing Ford was now seriously considering the car as a GT40 alternative.

The car's initial run at Le Mans in 1964 had been disastrous for Ford, as the GT40 suffered numerous reliability issues, while the Daytona's had been excellent from the get-go. Impatient with the star car's progress and its terrible performance so far, Ford reasoned the Super Coupe could be a good fall-back to call on.

After another shouting match and some gun clattering from Ford about the future of his GT40-contract, Radford was given a second chance to build the car, now under the round the clock supervision of Pete Brock himself.

Thinking his guidance would see the car finished in a matter of weeks, Brock was surprise to find another batch of second-rate fabricators trundling around it. All of Radford's top men had once again been put on the GT40-roster, and the results spoke for themselves. Brock accounted for the setback by freeing up three more months, but to no avail.

Eventually he had no other choice than to ship the largely unfinished machine back to Los Angeles. There, work stopped completely. Ford had ironically called Carroll Shelby over to Ford Advanced Vehicles in England to sort the car out, which he promptly did in conjunction with John Wyer Automotive.

As their main project had been saved, and Radford's inept bumbling had taken the Super Coupe five times over budget, the unique car was rendered totally obsolete. Adding insult to injury, a more developed version of the standard Daytona had finally taken the GT-title at the end of 1965, leaving Ford to focus solely on the top level prototype class.

"There wasn't time for development, because by the time that would've happened, the coupe was over and done. As a designer, I just see all the things that didn't work. If it wasn't broke, we didn't fix it. I just wanted to fix it." Pete Brock

As the Daytona program drew to a close entirely, the six 289-models were sold off for loose change, having outlived their usefulness. The 427 Super Coupe suffered a similar fate despite being incomplete, being passed around between a number of wealthy car fanatics promising to complete it.

Eventually, it was purchased by Craigh Sutherland, who immediately sent it to specialist Mike Dopudja to finish its build. Not wanting to ruin the car any further than Radford had done, Sutherland also arranged for Pete Brock to be closely involved with the project.

Dopudja and Brock finally managed to get the car done in 1981, some sixteen years after construction had begun. In its final form, the special Shelby weighed just 1043 kg (2300 lbs) and utilized a heavy duty Borg Warner T10 4-speed manual transmission.

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Roaring in satisfaction, the Super Coupe was quickly put to work by the skilled hands of legendary drivers like Bob Bondurant, Brian Redman and Bob Hindson in vintage racing. Mike Dopudja also had a go, as did 427 Cobra National Champion Dick Smith.

Later on, the car found a home with George Stauffer, who set out to improve the car even further than Dopudja had done, without going outside Pete Brock's original design specifications.

Since then, the car has been extensively restored after a hard second life in the vintage racing circuit, where it remains to this day. After all the pre-production horrors it faced, the Shelby Daytona 427 Super Coupe had at long last found a home.