For Sale: 1965 Shelby 427 Competition Cobra
Images by David Bush courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
One of just 23 Competition 427 Cobras, this championship-winning machine is a 620 horsepower dream car. It’s heading to auction at RM Sotheby’s Arizona sale on the 28th of January.
The car, chassis CSX 3010, is the tenth of the 23 427 Competition Cobras built by Shelby. It was built in 1965 and sold to Don Russell Jr. Out of the factory it was fitted with a milder exhaust so that it could be used on the street, as well as a shoulder harness and road lights.
Russell took the car to two local speed events, but, wanting a car that could compete on the track but still be usable on the road, decided that it was too fierce for the road and sold it after just two months to George Butler of Connecticut.
Butler immediately went racing, scoring a DNF in his first event, the Garden State Cup at Vineland in New Jersey, before going on to win the A Production class at the SCCA regionals at Thompson Speedway in Connecticut.
In 1967 CSX 3010 was sold to Peter Consiglio, who raced it in SCCA events to some success, before bumping up to SCCA National racing the following year. At the time Gus Zuidema was responsible for preparing the car for racing and gave it its lovely black paint job with golf leaf stripes.
In his rookie SCCA National season Peter Consiglio proved to be extremely competitive. He sat on the podium for eight of the season’s eleven races, beating the 1966 championship-winning CSX 3009 in divisional rankings. These results qualified him for the SCCA American Road Race of Championships at Riverside, where he and CSX 3010 won the A Production Championship ahead of the 1967 championship-winning CSX 3035 driven by Dick Smith and ’65 championship-winning CSX 3008 driven by Hal Keck.
At the end of the season Peter sold the car to John Risley, who continued to race, now taking it to the Canadian Endurance Championship Series. He and co-driver David Fram were similarly successful, claiming several podium finishes throughout their career together.
In the final round of the 1971 Eastern Canadian Endurance Championship at Circuit Ste-Croix the car broke an axle. This was repaired and they were able to head out again, but would later suffer a brake failure that ended up rolling the car, taking it out of the race and ending its period career. Nevertheless, Risley, Fram and CSX 3010 were still able to secure an overall win in the championship.
After the accident Risley sold the car unrepaired and sans engine to Andrew Davidson, before it moved on again to Pat Price and Marc Hefte. Its current owner acquired it in 1978.
He planned to take it back to the track, and investigations showed that the chassis was straight with the body having dealt with the brunt of its ’71 racing incident. He had the car fully rebuilt by Stewart Hall, debuting it to a first place price in the 1982 Palo Alto Concours d’Elegance.
He then began racing it in historics, including the 1983 Monterey Historics. At the first Monterey Vintage Sports and Race Car auction in 1986 he offered it for sale. CSX 3010 went for $138,000 and became the most expensive Cobra sold at that time.
CSX 3010 would then go to Steve Prewitt, who toured and raced it for a quarter century until he passed away in 2007. In 2011 its current owner re-bought it from the Prewitt estate, beginning his second ownership of the car which continues until this day.
As the car had sat for some time he had it refurbished for the purposes of vintage racing and touring. It received suspension and transmission rebuilds, a freshening of the interior and restoration of its lovely black paint with gold leaf stripes.
In 2014 a fresh 620 bhp, 427 cubic inch overhead valve V8 with single Holley carburetor was installed. The car has since toured extensively and raced in the Monterey Historics several any times.
A stunning example of one of, if not the most, desirable Cobras ever built, CSX 3010 is in beautiful condition, ready for touring or race preparation. It’s sold with its original front clip, street and race equipment and a full documentation file from its full and impressive career.
If you’re interested you’ll need to bring somewhere between US$2,500,000 – $3,300,000 when the car goes to auction on Thursday the 28th of January, 2016, at RM Sotheby’s’ Arizona Sale. For the full details head to RM Sotheby’s’ site here.
Images by David Bush courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
