Shelby Daytona Coupe fetches $7.25M

The man who paid $7.25 million Saturday for a 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe probably won't be driving it 197 mph, the speed Bob Bondurant and Dan Gurney hit with a nearly identical racer to win The 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1963.

But with 275 horsepower and legendary aerodynamics, he could — and that's probably a big part of the allure.

The crown jewel of the Mecum At Monterey exotic automobile auction at the Hyatt Regency Monterey was designed by Peter Brock and built by Carroll Shelby to try to unseat Ferrari as the dominant racing machine in the GT race class.

Brock, who was on hand with Bondurant at Saturday's show, created the car — one of only six ever built — by putting an experimental coupe body on an existing Cobra chassis, an innovation that increased the race car's top speed by 25 mph.

The Cobra won its maiden race at Daytona, which prompted Shelby to adopt the Daytona name. It then made racing history when, in 1965, it became the first American car ever to win the Federation Internationale de Automobile World Manufacturers Championship.

Bondurant, now 76, was at the wheel that day in Reims, France.

"It's fantastic to be here, having raced this car in 1964 and '65," he said Saturday as he sat behind the wheel of the Cobra — which still bears the number 26 on its door — on the fairways of Old Del Monte Golf Course, adjacent to the Hyatt. "Our mission with this car was to beat Ferrari for the World Manufacturers Advertisement Championship and we accomplished that when we won the race in France."

After four decades, Bondurant was reunited with the famous car two months ago at the racing school he owns and operates in Phoenix, an experience that immediately brought back memories.

"I got in, fired it up and it sounded fantastic," he said. "I took it out on my race track, and halfway through that first lap I started feeling like I had never been out of the car. We had six of these cars — I drove three of them over in Europe — and this one just always had a little better feel than the others."

The difference, he says, was in Brock's aerodynamic design.

"It had a flat-tail back, and nobody had ever designed one with a flat tail," he said. "Pete had the vision to build a car in this shape, and Carroll said, 'No, it's not going to work.' In fact, nobody wanted to believe it would work — but it did."

Shortly before he had the honor of personally driving the car onto the auction platform, Bondurant grinned broadly at the expected sale price of at least $7 million.

"I think it's great," he said. "After we won the championship, Carroll sold out to Ford, and Ford decided to get rid of all of the Cobras. Carroll called me and said, 'You need to buy this car.'"

Bondurant scraped together the $4,000 asking price, and later sold it for $10,000 to a man who owned two gas stations in South Dakota. He used it to commute between the stations, full-throttle.

"I thought I had made a killing," Bondurant said Saturday with a laugh. "And today somebody's going to pay $7 million? I guess I should have held out a while."

Dennis Taylor can be reached at 646-4344 or dtaylor@montereyherald.com.