[h=1]How the Shelby Daytona Coupe Changed Racing Forever[/h]

• James Derek Sapienza

Shelby Daytona Coupe at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1964 | Ford



Anyone with a passing interest in cars knows the Shelby Cobra. The Corvette may forever be America’s Sports Car thanks to its 60-plus years of service, but for five years in the middle of the 1960s, Carroll Shelby’s Anglo-American Ford-powered supercar captured the hearts and minds of gearheads, and spawned over a million imitations in the decades since. What makes this more astonishing is that Shelby built under 1,000 Cobras, and that both Shelby and AC (the British company that built Cobra bodies) are still building replicas of the cars that made them famous so long ago.


But for some people, the Cobra isn’t Shelby’s greatest achievement, nor are the Mustangs that have his name on them. In 1964 and ’65, Shelby built six cars that changed the racing world forever. Known as the Daytona Coupe, these cars helped legitimize America as a major player in international racing, and despite their brief time in the spotlight, their incredible success story and beautiful styling seared them into the memories of countless racing fans. In 2014, the original car, CSX2287, became the first car to be given National Historic Vehicle status by the Department of the Interior, making it an official national treasure.
CSX2000, the first Shelby Cobra | Darin Schnabel/RM Sotheby’s



And it all started in 1963 with a crashed Cobra, a sketch on a yellow legal pad, and a whole lot of skeptical people. Ferrari was at the top of its game, with the 250 GTO dominating the racing world. Shelby’s roadster was a great straight-line car, and could dominate on short American tracks, but in the international racing world, it was considered a joke. Shelby hated being the butt of a joke.


The Cobra was beautiful and muscular-looking, but it suffered from poor aerodynamics. Speaking with Road and Track decades later, Shelby driver Bob Bondurant recalled: “Aerodynamically, the roadster was a boxcar. At Spa in 1964, we’d be flat out in fourth, and the GTOs and Porsche 904s would just drive around us and pull away.” Shelby desperately wanted a car that could crush Ferrari on its home turf, and turned to a 26-year-old designer named Pete Brock to do it.


1963 Shelby Daytona Coupe | Ford



From the shop floor at Shelby American, Brock quickly came up with a coupe design after taking the chassis from a Cobra that wrecked at Le Mans in 1963, and placing the steering wheel and seat where he thought it should go. With its low, curved front end and steeply raked windshield, it bore a passing resemblance to the 250 GTO, but out back, the car became a source of controversy at the company.


Brock had come across the 1930s-era studies of Dr. Wunibald Kamm, a German physicist who argued that a smooth automotive design with an abrupt, flat tail greatly reduces the aerodynamic drag of a vehicle. The only problem was, no one had designed a Kammtail car in years, and it completely went against conventional wisdom of the day. The engineers at Shelby hated the car, even going so far as to bring in a former racing pilot to try to talk Brock out of it. But he stood firm, and he had the support of the one person that mattered: Carroll Shelby.


1965 Shelby Daytona Coupe CSX260, May 15, 2009 | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images



What’s more, Brock was quickly vindicated. In its first shakedown on the track, the coupe hit speeds of 186 miles per hour on the straightaway – the same top speed as the 250 GTO. After a month of dialing it in further, the car could easily top 190. Then, it was given the green light to go racing.
Shelby Daytona Coupe at Sebring, 1964 | Ford



The Shelby Daytona debuted in March 1964 at the 12 Hours of Sebring, where it won the GT class. An additional five cars were constructed, though their bodies were built by Carrozzeria Gransport in Modena, Italy, then shipped to the U.S. The second of these cars, CSX2299, became one of the most dominant competition cars in the world, winning its class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the RAC Tourist Trophy, the 1965 24 Hours of Daytona, and the ’65 12 Hours of Sebring. By the end of its first racing season, the Daytona had finished second in the World Sportscar Championship’s GT III class.
But the 1965 season was Shelby’s year. On top of Daytona and Sebring, the cars won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the Grand Prix at Spa, the 1,000-kilometer race at the Nürburgring, 12 Hours of Reims, and Enna-Pergusa. It dominated the GT III class, taking home the championship with a 19-point lead over the second-place team. And then, it was all over.
The Ford GT40’s first overall victory, 1965: (L to R) Ken Miles, Carroll Shelby, Lloyd Ruby, Leo Beebe, Ray Geddes | Ford



In 1964, Ford attempted to buy Ferrari, but a series of acrimonious negotiations between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari led to the deal falling through, and with Ford hell-bent on humiliating Ferrari on the track. The Daytonas ran Ford 289- and 427-cubic-inch V8s, but Ford wanted its own car to beat Ferrari. It enlisted Carroll Shelby’s help in developing the GT40, and even though it was the height of the Daytona’s success, Shelby put the full weight of the company behind the project. When the 1965 season ended, what should’ve been a massive success was barely acknowledged. The Daytona was old news.
2015 Shelby Daytona “50th Anniversary” Coupe | Carroll Shelby International



In 1965, CSX2287 was retired from racing and sent to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where it set 25 land speed records. But a year later, Shelby took the car and the five others and unceremoniously sold them at the Shelby American “garage sale.” The price: $24,000 for the lot, or about $175K today. That car changed hands several times (including being owned, briefly, by infamous music producer Phil Spector), before becoming the center of one of the strangest automotive court battles in history. Today, it’s safely in the hands of a collector and revered as a national treasure.
As for the other five cars, several are still raced at historic events, ensuring fans born decades after the fact can still see Daytonas doing what they do best.

Astonishingly, despite the recent boom of the collector car market, a Daytona hasn’t changed hands since 2009, when it sold for $7 million. If one sold today, it would likely sell for more than four times that much, possibly even giving its old rival, the Ferrari 250 GTO (the current title holder for world’s most expensive car), a run for its money.

CSX260 before auction, April 28, 2009 | Emmanuel Dundand/AFP/Getty Images

Despite its brief moment in the spotlight, the Daytona has become one of the most beloved cars ever built and, like the Cobra, has inspired thousands of imitators. Shelby currently builds continuation models with comforts like air conditioning and a stereo (options the notoriously hot, cramped racers didn’t have), and California-based EV company Renovo even builds an electric Daytona track car. Neither comes cheap ($179K and up for a Shelby, $500K and up for the Renovo), but with the original six cars being some of the most iconic and valuable things on four wheels in the world, the modern cars kind of seem like a deal.
While the Cobra is Shelby’s lasting legacy, and his work on the Ford GT40 made that car arguably the most famous American racer of all-time, the Daytona Coupe is a legend in its own right. At the end of the front-engined endurance raging era, it proved that the Americans could beat the Europeans at their own game, and opened the door for some of the most exciting competition in racing history, courtesy of Shelby and Ford.

 

[h=1]The Birdcage: Maserati’s Last Great Racer[/h]

• James Derek Sapienza

Source: RM Sotheby’s



Even the most casual gearhead is familiar with Ferrari’s history. It’s Enzo’s company, and he only ever got into making road cars to fund the racing program. It dominated Le Mans in the ’50s and ’60s, and has been building some of the most desirable cars in the world ever since. But what about Maserati, its one-time rival, and now corporate cousin? Its current lineup is pretty and powerful but underappreciated, with the Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans topped by formidable but aging GranTurismo (and GranCabrio), and soon to be buttressed by the Levante SUV. Over the years, it sold models ranging from the beautiful to the bewildering, and spent decades in and out of financial trouble. It’s an exotic automaker in every way, but it just doesn’t have the same type of cachet as its former — and now, sort-of — competitor.
Or does it?


Maserati’s history goes back far beyond Ferrari’s. The company was founded by the Maserati brothers in 1914, raced against titans like Auto Union (now Audi) and Mercedes in the 1930s, and became the only Italian manufacturer to ever win the Indianapolis 500 in 1939 and ’40. In the 1950s, it and Ferrari had one of the most ferocious rivalries in motorsport history, ending only after a tragic accident at the 1957 Mille Miglia killed 10 spectators (Ferrari almost quit racing after the accident as well).
Source: RM Sotheby’s



It was only then that Maserati began turning its attention to road cars — a full 10 years after Ferrari starting taming its race cars for customers. In the decades since, Maserati has built some fearlessly unique road cars like the 3500 GT, Ghibli, and Bora among them. But it couldn’t give up racing or its rivalry that easily. In 1959, the company debuted its “Birdcage” cars in spectacular fashion. It would come to define a brief but innovative era in motorsport history, and give rise to a legend that continues to influence the company today.
Source: RM Sotheby’s



After the 1957 accident, the official directive from company brass said no more racing. But it didn’t say anything about building race cars for private teams. Design director Guido Alfieri had been experimenting with a new type of construction, and by 1959 had completed his first car. The ’50s were an era when competition cars either had a tub chassis or a ladder-frame one. The car, known as Tipo 60, had neither; it was constructed of over 200 sections of tubing (generally 1 to 1.5 to centimeters thick) welded together to create a flexible, incredibly lightweight space frame chassis, which reminded the team of a mangled birdcage.

It was woven around the suspension (a similar setup to the iconic 250F racer) and engine, a 250-horsepower 2.9-liter mid-mounted inline-four, and skinned in a sinewy aluminum body. The car was impossibly low, and incredibly light — just 1,300 pounds — and despite skepticism from company director Omer Orsi, the first Birdcage car, known as Tipo 60, went racing in July, when Sterling Moss drove the car to a commanding victory at the Delamare-Deboutteville Cup in France. It set the racing world on fire.

As world-class racing began to take root in the United States, the Birdcage’s light weight and high speed made it seem like the ideal candidate to racers from the new world. Driven by Dan Gurney, Gus Audrey, Roger Penske, and Lloyd Casner, Birdcage cars dominated SCCA events in 1960 and 1961, defeating legends like the Porsche 718s and Ferrari 250TRs. It proved successful in Europe too, winning the ’60 and ’61 1000-kilometer races at the Nürburgring.
Source: RM Sotheby’s



Despite having no official presence in motorsport, the successes of Birdcage cars were enough for Maserati to finish in third place in the Manufacturer’s Championship title in ’60, and second in ’61. But it wasn’t enough to keep it in the international sports car conversation. A smaller company even when compared to Ferrari and Porsche, Maserati’s brass refused to lift the official racing ban, stunting growth at a time when its competitors were evolving on the track at a fantastic rate. Reliability issues meant a trio of Birdcage cars failed to finish at the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the issues only got worse in the ’61 season. By 1962, the Birdcage cars were history.


But Maserati’s groundbreaking racer isn’t just some historic footnote. Tubular space frame designs began to gain in popularity in the 1960s, and in the decades since, they’ve shown up in everything from Formula 1 to kit cars. The car seen here, a Tipo 61 from 1960, was part of that famous Camoradi team, and wears the colors that have come to represent the best of Maserati. It fetched $2.09 million at RM Sotheby’s 2013 Monterey auction, and if it changed hands today, would probably fetch much more.


Maserati’s last great racing push hasn’t gone unnoticed by the company either. It may not be a racing powerhouse anymore, but its MC12 supercar was only available in the white and blue livery used on the Camoradi racing team’s Tipo 61s, and its 2005 Birdcage 75th concept was built in tribute to the racer, as well as Pininfarina’s 75th anniversary. Maserati may not be the no-compromise sports car builder Ferrari is, but it has plenty of authentic Italian performance in its blood — too much to be ignored. And the 22 Birdcage cars, Tipos 60 through 65, are some of the most revolutionary race cars to ever come from Italy.

 

History of Race Cars The Super Modifieds

IMRRC - Oswego Speedway Supermodified History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uastrgon7M

Super modifieds at Oswego Speedway plus driver interviews
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9399250

 

[h=1]The History Of The Grand Prix Car Pt 1[/h]
musrum
Published on Oct 14, 2006

An in depth look at the mechanical development of the Grand Prix car 1945 - 1965

 

[h=1]Formula 1 history 1947-1967 onboard[/h]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YExRktlV5Kk

matteo426
Published on Aug 21, 2007

Beautiful video about the formula 1 history from 1947 to 1967

 

Tying some Tampa Racing history together
See last post in thread:
See it before it goes away.

 

Petersen launches major Porsche exhibit through January 27 2019
Friday, 02 February 2018
Richard S. James (words & images)



For the next year, the Petersen Automotive Museum will host "The Porsche Effect," an exhibit that includes iconic road and racing cars.

Few automotive brands inspire desire and loyalty among race fans as Porsche. Opening this weekend, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles is hosting "The Porsche Effect," which it claims is the most comprehensive display of Porsche cars outside of Stuttgart.


The collection on display includes a nice chronology of the rear-engined coupes that began with the 1938 Berlin-Rome Type 64 race car (pictured above), the first to bear the Porsche name. That beginning and the subsequent 70 years have inexorably tied the company to motorsports, and the collection houses some key components of Porsche racing history.

That includes one of Penske's Sunoco-liveried 917/30 Can-Am cars driven by Mark Donohue, a 910 and a 911 GT1, all in the lobby before one even arrives at the ticket counter. Inside the exhibit, there's a nice timeline of Porsche race cars that begins with a 550 Spyder and includes the 1970 24 Hours of Daytona-winning 917, a 959 (pictured above) driven in the Paris-Dakar rally by Jacky Ickx, a Penske RS Spyder and, of course, the recently retired 919. A display of Porsche racing machinery wouldn't be complete without a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, and that comes in the form of the Whittington Brothers' 935K (below) that Don and Bill Whittington and Klaus Ludwig drove to an overall victory in in 1979.

Fans of Porsche's transaxle cars may be disappointed in the main exhibit, but they'll get to see some favorites among the front-engined cars in the special Porsche-dedicated vault tour. That will include a 924 Carrera GTS Club Sport and a 968 Turbo RS.
Accompanying them in the vault are a 962C in Jagermeister livery, a 1974 Vasek Polak 934, a 1988 March 88C Porsche IndyCar and the 1987 McLaren TAG Porsche F1 car driven by Alain Prost.


In all, 50 Porsche road cars and race cars will be available to museum visitors, along with a variety of historical documents, artifacts and non-car products that carry the Porsche name.


"Within my responsibility I have at Porsche, none is greater than the commitment of looking after our great brand," said Klaus Zellmer, President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America. "With that, of course, comes the compulsion to support and honor our rich heritage.When the Petersen Museum first suggested we work together on what has become 'The Porsche Effect,' I immediately saw the mutual benefits to both.

We are looking forward to sharing the story of Porsche through rare and seldom seen artifacts and display elements, in addition to some of the most iconic cars or all time."

The exhibit runs through Jan. 27, 2019. The Petersen Automotive Museum is located at 6060 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles.

 

Tying some racing history together
See last post in thread:
See it before it goes away.

 

A lot of pics and videos are electronic pics.
See them before they go away......

 

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