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BOOK REVIEW  By Peter Baker

Great Cars 14: Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe – The Autobiography of CSX2300

If ever a racer merited the title Great Car, it is the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. Very special in 1964, some of us will recall Jack Sears making the headlines when he exceeded 180mph during late night testing on the M1 motorway. It remains fast even today. So much so, Masters Historic Racing has introduced time penalties into its 2020 Gentlemen Drivers Championship in an attempt to create a more level playing field and give the opposition a better chance at victory.

Chassis number CSX2300, the focus of this sublime history lesson, broke cover in late ‘64 and looked like winning the Tour de France first time out, in the hands of Jochen Neerpasch and Bob Bondurant. Sadly, the fairy tale ended within sight of the finish when the engine cried enough. For the record, Lucien Bianchi and Georges Berger (Ferrari 250GTO) took the chequered flag.

The 1965 season included Daytona - 6th overall (3rd in class), Sebring 12 Hours - 13th overall, and the Nurburgring 1,000kms - 12th overall. In the final event, the Reims 12 Hours, CSX2300 was entered by John Willment Racing and driven by Jack Sears/John Whitmore into 9th place overall and 2nd in class.

Redundancy followed and in March 1966, after changing hands a couple of times, CSX2300 found its way to Japan where, now owned by Tadashi Sakai, it competed in the ‘66 Japanese Grand Prix, a strange race held to promote the opening of the new Mount Fuji circuit. It expired on lap 47. Two years later Kazuo Myouchin entered it in the 1968 Grand Prix, where it finished in 11th position, beaten by mainly new generation Can-Am cars. By now, the once proud Shelby Cobra was but a shadow of its former self. It had never been officially imported into Japan, so when Shinichi Yoshikawa took the car on, and to get the appropriate certificate, he first had to get the old girl running. He fitted a Mustang Mach 1 engine, along with its automatic transmission. Hmm.

The story might have ended there and then, except rumours of the car lying in someone’s back garden spread to the States. Pete Brock talked to Shelby fan Mike Shoen, who already owned two of the six original Daytona Coupes built by Shelby. Shoen got excited, did the business, and then sold the car to none other than Mr. Carroll Shelby, who kept it for 20 years. Shelby had, by then, become a tired man with debt, so he handed the papers on to Jim Spiro, who in turn sold it for a reputed USD4.4 m to Larry Bowman. Inevitably, in 2004, CSX2300 appeared at Goodwood Revival, where Christian Glasel fell in love with it, negotiated a price and drove it home. His sister Daniela Ellerbrock, and her husband Olivier, are the current custodians of Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe chassis number CSX2300.

In 2011 Kenny Brack/Tom Kristensen won an epic, and very wet, TT Celebration race at the Goodwood Revival meeting, while Olivier currently competes in a wide selection of events, he finished 2nd overall with Klaus Rohwer on the 2018 Modena Cento Ore Classic.

Make no mistake, this is a superb book, but to me it’s a bit over-stuffed with lots of back story waffle that a lot of Shelby book owners will have read before. And the portrait pictures taken at the old Reims circuit are a bit on the dark side. But the chapter on CSX2300’s drivers, some 44 pages, more than makes up for it. And the deep knowledge base reveals the long-held passion of fanatic Rinsey Mills.

Finally, it seems we were both standing in the pouring rain at Brands Hatch in 1966 when David Piper and Bob Bondurant won the Ilford Trophy in a Cobra. That seals it for me; great book, and thoroughly recommended.

Great Cars 14: Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe – The Autobiography of CSX2300
Written by Rinsey Mills
ISBN 978-1-907085-42-0
Available from Porter Press International
Price £60.00