(Photos by Joe Grippo) – The story of the Shelby Daytona coupe is one of the more amazing in American automotive history. They were built as an all out effort for Shelby to stand toe to toe with Ferrari and capture the world sports car manufacturer’s title. The Shelby Cobra was a mean car but with its open top and poor aero, it did not have the top end speed to hang with the more lithe Ferraris on the long straights of European courses. By now most of you know the story but Pete Brock designed the shape and the guys at Shelby American begrudgingly built six of the cars in a rush in 1964/1965. It was 1965 when Shelby managed to prove that Ferrari could be defeated and the he reveled in the fact that these coupes were the cars that topped the veritable colossus from Italy. Of course a funny thing happened after that. Those six cars came home and Shelby 
couldn’t even get scrap value for them on the open market. They were old race cars and no one wanted them. There wasn’t an idea that they’d one day rise to become among the most valuable and significant American cars ever built. Nope, they were used up hunks that weren’t worth half of what Shelby was asking….so people thought. It just so happens that this was the first one of the six built, CSX 2287.
This particular car competed at Le Mans twice, as well as Daytona, Sebring, Spa, Reims, and the Tour de France but it also competed at Bonneville. Yes, Bonneville. 1965 was perhaps the best year of the pitched battle between Craig Breedlove and Art Arfons for the land speed record. It was all-out war and when Breedlove ran over 555 mph in early November it looked like he would be holding onto the record for the winter until Arfons ripped it back scarcely a week later. Because the salt was held open for record attempts and then given over to other competitors if someone attempt ended early, Breedlove was able to get back onto the salt, run over 600mph and then start scheming. Fearful that leaving the salt would give Arfons the time necessary to leapfrog him again, Breedlove and crew got creative. They stuck Lee Breedlove (craig’s then wife) into the machine and she set the female land speed record and when that was going on panicked calls were made to Shelby where a Daytona Coupe was requested. The guys were going to set endurance speed records with the car and eat up their remaining time. Initially against the idea because the car had not been freshened up since Le Mans, Shelby went along with it, had a fresh backup engine installed and shipped the car out stat.
Once it got to the salt, Bobby Tatroe and Breedlove drove the thing at about 190mph for hours and hours on end around a 12-mile round course. Timing officials almost quashed the effort because with no backup engine or advanced planning they thought that the whole thing was a sham to block Arfons. While it was intended (and successful) at blocking Arfons, there were a ton of records to break and break them they did. Now, many of them were on the books from the 1930s but you get what we are saying. After being beaten to nearly the point of falling apart, the car went back to Shelby and got cleaned up somewhat. It was sold to toy car magante Oscar Koveleski and eventually ended up being owned by Phil Spector. Wacky Phil drove it for a short time and complained that it wasn’t too good for a street car (mostly because it wan’t) and it then went through more private hands before being involved in all kinds of weirdness after it was hidden, found, sold, and eventually brought to sale where Mr. Simeone purchased it and brought it to the museum. We’d go into all the details of that story but it would be 20,000 words and the point of the deal is that the right guy ended up with it and as you will see it lives a life where people can see it and actually hear it working, which is not something that can be said for the remaining Daytonas. Also remember, this is the very first one ever made.
Some things to look for in the photos.The first, and you can correct us if we are wrong are the quick connect fittings you’ll see. We’re reasonably certain those are the vacuum lines that Phil Remington developed to aid in the changing of brake pads. Those babies would pull the calipers open and make pad changes almost instantaneous, which made other teams furious and brought protests which were not validated. Remington’s handiwork is all over the cars. The rear spoiler was a Remington addition (we believe) after early testing with the cars showed that that needed some more downforce. The awesome thing to think about regarding this car is how many amazing hands were on it. From Remington to the rest of the Shelby crew, Shelby himself, Brock, Dave McDonald, etc. A truly breathtaking piece of American racing history and here it is.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE GRIPPO PHOTOS OF THE FIRST SHELBY DAYTONA COUPE EVER MADE AND ONE THAT DOMINATED ROAD COURSES AND THE SALT!
Great article
I’ve seen one of these in person [ two actually .. at the Boulder Shelby Museum ] and can only say … if you haven’t … you’ve no idea how innovative and ahead of his time Shelby and this car was back in the day . Too bad there’s nobody in todays US road racing scene with one tenth the creativity and cojones of Carol Shelby
And again … the Simeone …. don’t even waste the time to think about it … just make the plans ….. and GO !
You’ll be glad you did ! 😉
But errr … what be that silver car lurking in the background of one of the photos ?
Ford Focus.
Awesome detailed photos of an epic beast. What history this thing has seen and with its racing over such a short span of time. It rocked the world and was one piece that helped prove to the world the US can produce cars that are capable of spanking anything the Europeans dish.
A small minor correction if I may . The sentence should of read ;
” …. helped prove to the world the US ‘ COULD ‘ … [ as in past tense ] … produce cars capable of spanking …… ”
Cause the simple fact is … other than the Ford GT …. we aint produced bupkiss since the 60’s thats even in the same league as what Europe is doing …. never mind spanking or even so much as being competitive with them .
That is unless of course you choose to believe all the Hype & Propaganda the (not so) Big Three [especially GM ] spread around like so much manure in a Nebraska corn field … 😉
Funny you mention Nebraska, manure, and karn field. I can tell you from my experience that Euro cars are over-engineered, over-rated, and a PITB when you point a wrench at them. I don’t hate them, but cars such as a Calloway, Hennessey, Lingenfelter, etc are not 2nd-fiddle to European tuners. Also, the ZO6 ‘Vette is still the best bang-for-buck out there in the thrills-per-dollar market (Hmmm…Hellcat maybe). I didn’t say ‘most refined’, ‘best use of rosewood’, ‘Italian-leather wrapped’, or ‘most full of over-complicated features’. Its not a Bentley (and a Bentley is no longer a Bentley). It is American and un-apologetically American (at least for the time-being). If our junk is so much…..junk…then why the demand for it overseas…
Not to offend any huskers reading this, but –
Nebraska – where the Missouri river is too thin to plow and too thick to drink,
Nebraska – where there is twice the land mass of Iowa and half the people,
Nebraska – where the only thing between it and the cold wind of Canada is a barbed-wire fence.
Stationed there for 4 years so I speak from experience. CWS, the zoo, I-80 raceway and Speedway motors are the most-redeeming parts.
Not so-
Panoz at LeMans
Corvettes in Europe and LeMans
Vipers in Europe and LeMans
Ford GTs in Europe
Get your facts straight
thank you for the interior shoots the foot pedals & surrounding area has warmth of a nice office nothing over stated here strictly business again thank you for sharing
Thanks again for the great coverage and kind words about the museum and CSX2287, we truly appreciate it. There are so many amazing details on the car that should really be experienced in person to fully appreciate.
Another special detail is the imprinted metal twist-tie on the fuel filler cap. Frequently the race organizers added these to the cars before the races began. It’s amazing that it survived all these years on the car.
It’s great to see this car re-surface. I followed the legal battle over this car after the owner committed suicide and her mother sold the car. I never thought I would see the car again. I figured it would be in a private museum, where only the privelaged could see it. Thanks for running this article.
Almost certainly one of the factory lightweight e-type Jaguars
Wow, great photo’s…so weird from an Aussie perspective to read the references to Pete Brock’s influences on this car. I’m well aware of Pete Brock in the US but the really weird thing is that we had a Peter Brock in Australia who was possibly our most famous driver ever….the really strange thing is how he met his end – in a Targa rally he was campaigning in a Daytona coupe and lost it into a tree and tragically lost his life….
I think you left out the most interesting part of the story of how this Daytona was stored away for years. Carroll Shelby as well as myself were both turned away from inquiring about this legendary beast. The owner(a woman) eventually set herself on fire and lived many agonizing hours before dying.
Also there was a huge fight over the ownership on this car that went on for some time.