An ultra-rare, one-only Superformance “Sebring Tribute” Coupe car will be sold at No Reserve during the fourth annual Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Collector Car Event. Built by Superformance under license by Carroll Shelby as a modern evolution of the 1964 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe, the car is one of the highest performance supercars ever built. The fourth annual event will include three days of No Reserve auction excitement from Thursday, March 30 through Saturday, April 1; SPEED will broadcast coverage of the event again this year.
“Peter Brock designed the six original Cobra Daytona Coupes for Carroll Shelby and helped America win its first sports car racing world championship,” said Craig Jackson, president and CEO of the Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. “This car is a tribute to the Coupe’s first victory, which began America’s golden age of international sports car racing. As the only Daytona Coupe replica personally endorsed by Shelby, it qualifies to be registered in the Shelby American Automobile Registry.”
The 1964 Sebring race was a watershed point in international GT racing. The Shelby team’s new prototype Daytona Cobra Coupe won the first of a long string of victories that would eventually lead to America’s first World’s Championship of Makes in 1965. The controversial-looking coupe penned by Peter Brock had caused a considerable stir at Daytona just a few weeks earlier when it led all the works Ferraris for several hours before being sidelined in a massive pit fire. The innovative design turned sports car racing on its ear and the victory at Sebring convinced Ford to back Shelby in his racing endeavors against Ferrari, effectively putting the dominant Italian company out of endurance racing.
The six original Daytona Coupes are now in private collections all over the world. As some of the rarest American racing cars ever produced, Daytona prices have continued to escalate over the years while desire for ownership has never diminished.
Forty years after the first coupe was constructed in Shelby’s racing shop in Venice, California, Jimmy Price, president of Superformance Automotive, and Brock teamed to recreate and update the car for limited production. The result, after years of careful development, was a series of just 100 lovingly crafted replicas that include every modern convenience that the originals lacked.
“I wanted to build the car that Shelby never had the chance to produce,” said Brock. “The Superformance Coupe is that car, bridging the racing world and the street. It is faster, more comfortable, better finished and more fuel-efficient than the originals, but retains the brutal essence that made those six racecars so much fun to drive. Built in the same spirit as the legendary GT’s of the 1960s, you can literally drive it to the track, compete, and then drive home.”
As the last of the first-generation Superformance Shelby Daytona Coupes, the car pays ultimate tribute to the car that inspired its form and performance. It has a state-of-the-art 427ci/560hp fuel-injected, Roush-built Ford V8 and five-speed Tremec TKO 600 transmission. Recent independent road tests of a similar Superformance Coupe proved that it is faster and handles better than the Ford GT, Dodge Viper GTS coupe, Ferrari 430, Aston-Martin DB9 or new Z06 Corvette.
“This particular coupe is the final production number of the series inspired by CSX 2287, the first of the six original coupes built in Shelby’s California racing shop,” added Jackson. “And with only one Sebring Tribute model ever produced, it will remain one of America’s rarest supercars. Peter Brock will attend the auction in Palm Beach to personally hand the keys to this Coupe to the winning bidder.”
About The Barrett-Jackson Auction Co.
Established in 1971 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., Barrett-Jackson specializes in providing products and services to classic and collector car owners, astute collectors and automotive enthusiasts around the world. The company produces the “World’s Greatest Collector Car Events(TM)” in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Palm Beach, Fla. For more information about Barrett-Jackson, visit www.barrett-jackson.com or call 480-421-6694.
Via businesswire
