66 Shelby Cobra sells for $5.5 Million

[Sledgehammer]

Shelby's personal Cobra pulls record price

January 22, 2007

Scottsdale, Arizona - A 600kW Shelby Cobra, once the personal car of the racing veteran who developed the iconic vehicle, has sold for $5.5-million at auction here.

The sale of the 1966 Shelby Cobra "Super Snake" brought a packed house to its feet on Saturday at the 36th Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction after a pair of bidders drove the price up.

Carroll Shelby, 84, who created the Cobra in the 1960's using Ford engines and British sports-car chassis, said he built the Super Snake - with two superchargers on a 427 cubic inch V8 - and drove it for years

Shelby created the Cobra using Ford engines and British sports-car chassis
.

"It's a special car. It would do just over three seconds to 60 (mph) 40 years ago," Shelby told the crowd before the sale. "I killed a buzzard with it - nasty, nasty."

An identical car was built for American comedian Bill Cosby but it was destroyed in an accident while being driven by another owner, according to the Barrett-Jackson website.

Steve Davis, Barrett-Jackson's president, said $5.5-million was not an overall world record price for a car - others had sold at auction for more than $11-million - (about R78-million) - but it was a record for an American car.

The winning bidder was car collector Ron Pratt who in 2006 paid $4.32-million for the Futureliner, one of 12 futuristic buses used for shows in the 1940's and 1950's 50s by General Motors. - Sapa-AP