A Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe (CSX2299) will be among the featured cars at the 2012 Amelia Island Concours d\u2019Elegance, scheduled for March 9-11 on the 10th and 18th fairways of the Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach adjacent to the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida. The Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe will be part of the 36 Hours of Florida Class at the 17th annual event.<\/p>\n
There were just six Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupes constructed for the 1964 and 1965 World Championship racing season. They were hand built tools to do a specific job: win the World Championship for America and Cobra creator Carroll Shelby.He came close in 1964, but was out maneuvered by Enzo Ferrari who lobbied to have the final race of the 1964 season cancelled. A move that beat Shelby\u2019s Cobra\u2019s by default. That prompted Cobra creator Shelby, a hard man who never minces words, to issue the infamous quote, \u201cNext year, Ferrari\u2019s ass is mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The car that will be showcased at the 2012 Amelia Island Concours d\u2019Elegance, Roger Miller\u2019s Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe CSX2299, led the charge that unseated Ferrari as World GT Champion. From its class victory and second place overall at the Daytona Continental in 1965, Miller\u2019s Daytona Cobra Coupe won five of the ten world championship races it entered and placed second in three more; all that after winning the GT category in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1964 and placing fourth overall. Another class victory at Sebring followed the Daytona triumph and a final class win in England served notice that Shelby wasn\u2019t kidding about Ferrari\u2019s posterior.<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s Cobra Daytona Coupe ended the 1965 championship season with a string of second place finishes at Le Mans, Reims, France and the Coppa di Enna, winning America the GT title on Ferrari\u2019s home ground in Italy. That makes Miller\u2019s CSX2299 the most successful racer of its breed winning as many victories as the rest of its Cobra Daytona siblings combined.<\/p>\n