1967 Shelby Cobra CSX3045 Offered for Sale at RM Auctions Arizona January 2013

1967 SHELBY 427 ‘SEMI-COMPETITION’ COBRA

• One of only 29 Semi-Competition Cobras built
• Genuine and fully documented
• Ex-John Mozart Collection

THE S/C 427 COBRA
Although the 289 Cobra was well proven in
competition, by the mid-sixties it was becoming
clear that something else was needed. Every year,
more power was required to stay competitive,
and Ford’s 289 had reached its reliability limit at
around 380 or 390 horsepower.

In many respects, the father of the 427 Cobra
was racing driver and development engineer
Ken Miles, who thought the idea of a bigger
engine might work for the Cobra, especially if
winning in SCCA’s A Production Class was the
aim. If there was any doubt about the need, it
was eliminated when the Shelby team went to
Nassau for Speed Week in 1963, where they
were confronted with Chevrolet’s new Corvette
Grand Sport, which was more than nine seconds
a lap faster than the Cobras.

Although Carroll Shelby had been promised
a new aluminum block version of Ford’s 390
engine, internal resistance developed from the
NASCAR faction inside of Ford and Shelby and
it was forced to make do with the cast iron 427.
Reliable at 500 horsepower, the engine was so
much heavier that a complete redesign of the
chassis was required to ensure that the car would
handle properly. The result was a larger chassis,
which was five inches wider, with coil springs
all around. The necessary work was completed
with the help of Ford’s engineering department,
and the formidable 427 Cobra was born.

As with all his cars, Shelby intended to see that the
Cobras were winners on the track. In order to qualify
as a production car under FIA rules for the GT class,
manufacturers were required to produce a minimum of
100 examples. Shelby’s strong relationship with privateer
racers gave him the confidence that he could sell that many,
and as a result, a competition spec version of the new 427
was announced. Features included an expanded body to
accommodate wider wheels and tires, an oil cooler, a side
exhaust, an external fuel filler, front jacking points, a roll
bar, and a special 42-gallon fuel tank.

Anticipating FIA approval, Shelby placed an order with
AC for 100 of these competition 427 Cobras. Each was
finished in primer with a black interior and air shipped
to Shelby’s facilities upon completion. Unfortunately,
when the FIA inspectors arrived on April 29th, 1965,
they found just 51 cars completed and denied Shelby the
homologation he needed. Oddly enough, the same fate
befell Ferrari: his 250 LM, which was intended to replace
the GTO, was also denied approval. As a result, both of
these archrivals were forced to return to the previous year’s
cars for the upcoming season.

Once Shelby knew that the FIA was not going to allow the
new 427 Cobra to compete in the GT class, he cancelled
his order for the remaining competition cars, and AC
reverted to the production of street cars.
Meanwhile, in June of 1965, the FIA decided to
juggle its classification system, and a new class, called
“Competition GT,” was created, and the production
requirement was lowered to 50—coincidentally, one less
than the number of 427 competition cars built at the
time of the FIA inspection.

The rule change created another problem for Shelby:
it put his Cobra in the same class as Ford’s GT40. Since
Shelby was running that program for Ford, there was
a clear conflict of interest, not to mention a disparity in
performance. To resolve it, Shelby agreed not to campaign
his own car, leaving it in the hands of the privateers.

By this time, 53 competition chassis had been completed
by AC (chassis number CSX 3001 through CSX 3053), and
of those, 16 had been sold to private teams. The first two
were retained as prototypes, and one chassis, CSX 3027,
was sent to Ford Engineering.

The remaining chassis were something of a problem for
Shelby. Parked outside Shelby’s L.A. warehouse, they were
proving difficult to sell. Seeing the cars prompted Shelby’s
East Coast representative, Charles Beidler, to suggest that
they be painted and completed as street cars and then
marketed as the fastest street car ever built. The idea
worked, and the 427 S/C, or Semi-Competition, was born.
The cars were brutally fast, and driving one was an
exhilarating experience. One of the most memorable
stories about the 427 Cobra surrounds a test that was
arranged for Sports Car Graphic magazine by Ken
Miles. A few years earlier, Aston Martin had bragged
that their racing cars were capable of accelerating from
0–100 mph to zero in less than 20 seconds. Miles had
the idea to restage the test using the new 427 Cobra.
The result, according to SCG’s editor, Jerry Titus, was
an astounding 13.2 seconds.

CSX 3045
A well-known and fully documented, no stories S/C,
CSX 3045 is actually pictured three times in the Shelby
American World Registry: in 1967, then with early owner
Peter Bayer on page 252; page 251 shows a nice on-track
shot (car # 288) with early-1980s owner Jere Clark at the
wheel; and again in the previous owner’s driveway, shortly
after taking delivery in 1995.

The Cobra presented here was invoiced to Shelby
American on February 23, 1965, and it was completed to
S/C specification under work order number 15103. On
April 21, 1966, Shelby American received an order for
an S/C model, including a request to install a modified
race exhaust system to be delivered to the customer, a
Mr. Hall, on May 31st. Likely, “Mr. Hall” did not actually
take delivery or keep the Cobra on its MSO, since the
next recorded owner, Peter Bayer, acquired CSX 3045 as
payment for promotional work done on behalf of dealer
Larsen Ford, of White Plains, New York, and he was the first
to register this car in 1967. Doug Carsen, of Rimersburg,
Pennsylvania, who is believed to have raced this particular
S/C in several SCCA events, became the next owner.

In the mid-1970s, John Parlante, of Whitestone, New York,
began some restoration work prior to passing the S/C to
Geoff Howard in 1978, who completed the work, including
the Guardsman Blue paint scheme. By 1979, it was
offered for sale with 10,400 miles: “Fresh restoration, all
competition options, polished Halibrands—expensive!”
Well-known historic and Cobra collector Jere Clark, of
Phoenix, Arizona, bought the car, installed Arizona plate
“427 S/C,” and went vintage racing.

At SAAC-5 in Dearborn, Michigan, CSX 3045 won First
Place in the Competition Shelby Popular Vote category,
after which Dick Smith gave a white-knuckled Rick Kopec
an on-track demo-drive at 185 mph! The car eventually
came into the hands of Cobra aficionado George Stauffer,
of Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, in the early-1980s; he
advertised it as “a real S/C; it has run at Laguna Seca several
times and is ready to win more historic races. Guardsman
Blue; fuel cell; not for the timid.”

By 1986, it was with Carl Schwartz, of Grand Blanc,
Michigan, followed by inclusion in the famous John
Mozart Collection from 1988 onward. Under Mr. Mozart’s
ownership, CSX 3045 was subjected to a full restoration
carried out to his impeccably high standards. It was
contracted to Mike Giddings, of Robin Automotive in
Northern California, who refurbished the suspension,
braking systems, and the rear end and transmission, as
well as performing all of the final assembly and detailing
work. The original engine was rebuilt, the dynamometer
was tested by Elgin Cams and Tech Craft, and the paint
work was handled by Scott Veazie Restoration Services, of
Los Angeles, California.

In December of 1994, Cobra expert Dave Dralle, of
Redondo Beach, California, carried out an inspection
of the car on behalf of the next owner, who purchased
it from Mr. Mozart in early-1995. This proved to be
money well spent, as CSX 3045 won a Gold at the 1998
SAAC Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, plus
Best Cobra and Best Comp Cobra at SAAC Ann Arbor,
Michigan in 1999, in addition to many regional SAAC
Show First Place awards.

With only 29 Shelby 427 Semi-Competition Cobras built,
these raucous roadsters are seldom offered publicly. It is
even more unusual to find a genuine, 18,000 mile S/C with
this car’s perfect provenance and stunning appearance,
providing a very tempting purchase consideration for a
serious collector of American racing history.