The beauty of the Shelby Cobra was that it married
big American muscle to a small British roadster in a package much simpler and
less expensive than its European competition. But half a century later, prime
examples are fetching big bucks.
Take this 1966 Shelby 427 Semi-Competition Cobra,
for example, which just sold for US$ 2.95 million at RM Sotheby’s in Arizona this
past weekend.
Described as “arguably one of the finest, most
original” of Cobras around, CSX 3030 was one of the few built for street use
with nearly all the equipment of the full competition version – right down to
the side exhaust and flared fenders.
The nearly US$ 3 million paid doesn’t make it the most
expensive Cobra ever sold at auction. That honor belongs to CSX 2000 – the very
first Shelby Cobra – sold for nearly US$ 14 million by the very same auction house
at Pebble Beach in 2016. But it far eclipsed the US$ 2-2.4m pre-sale estimate, and
represents a high-water mark for the vaunted S/C model.
It was also the highest price paid at the event,
where it was joined by Preston Tucker’s own Tucker 48 (which sold for US$ 1.79m),
a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso (US$ 1.68m) and 250 GT Series II Cabriolet (US$ 1.4m), and an
award-winning ’55 Alfa Romeo 1900C (US$ 1.27m). That very French-looking Ferrari
F12 TdF went for US$ 1.3m, and that black Bugatti EB110 GT for nearly a million
(setting another record for its type). The restomod ’59 Mercedes van went for US$ 162k, and that delicious little Porsche tractor for US$ 45k.
At the end of the day, RM sold 88 percent of the
lots consigned to rack up over US$ 36 million in sales. Unfortunately that didn’t
include the Jaguar D-Type that was expected to sell for over US$ 12 million, and
would have surely been the top lot of the day – had it met its reserve price.
