In the recent fantastic movie 'Ford vs Ferrari,' it highlighted the most dramatic & legendary corporate and racing rivalry of all time. They featured the Group 6 prototypes of Ferrari 330 P3 and Ford GT40 MkII in the movie. Those top designs overshadowed a car created by a handful of California hot rodders, the Shelby Daytona Coupe. Carrol Shelby was very preoccupied with the GT40 program, his tire business and Cobra production, but he was convinced by a young car designer, Peter Brock. He proposed a very unique rebodied close coupe on the successful Shelby Cobra. He was able to research early 1937 German aerodynamic studies of the obscure severely cut-off Kammback tail shapes. Without a wind tunnel but with ball point pen sketches, he shaped his aero-profile.
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No one in the Shelby shop wanted to work on such an 'ugly' design, but Carrol offered a crashed Cobra chassis, one mechanic and 90 days to have it road tested. With a plywood buck, they shaped the body. On the first road test at Riverside, with the same Cobra engine it had better stability, higher top speeds and broke the course record by 3 1/2 seconds! In its first racing year 1964, the six Shelby Daytona Coupes would dominate the GT Division III and GT-class win at 24 Hours of Le Mans, before the GT40. Clinched 1965 World Sportscar Championship.
In a capricious corporate decision, Shelby-owner Ford canceled the Daytona racing team. The Daytonas were in England, Shelby did not want them returned and ordered the English team manager to dump them in the English Channel. Shocked he sent them back at his own expense. The six were 'lost' in storage and various ownerships, soon rediscovered they are historic collectors with record highest prices paid for an American car at auction.
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