Shelby Cobra makes $5.94m

Fortune paid in Florida for Shelby’s own car

Even though it’s way off the record price for a Cobra – just under $14m for Shelby’s original small-block prototype in 2016 – $5.94m (£4.35m) is still a monumental sum, and about six times the going rate for a restored car. But that’s what was paid for this car at Mecum’s sale on 15 January in Kissimmee, Florida, so there has to be a story behind it, right?

And there is. This isn’t just another car that had Carroll Shelby’s name on the registration documents, it was the 427 big-block Cobra that he owned from new in 1965 right up until his death in 2012. That’s some pretty special provenance, but does it justify the price? Only the buyer can really say, but for some perspective this car last changed hands at RM’S Monterey sale in August 2016 for $1.375m. At that time, following restoration by the Shelby team in the early 2000s, it was red, with a single four-barrel carburettor and an automatic gearbox and a custom rollbar that Shelby had fitted in 1972.

Many believe the car always had an automatic ‘box and 428 engine, but since 2016 it has been restored again, now with a fourspeed Toploader manual ‘box and an aluminium-headed 427 ‘side-oiler’ with original-style dual four-barrel carbs. The rollbar has been removed and the body painted Charcoal Grey, allegedly the original colour – though that is literally a grey area. The Shelby Registry records it as grey primer and by 1972 Shelby had had it painted Guardsman Blue with a gold stripe.

So take your pick, but this extreme result is likely to shake up the Cobra market for some time.