Original 289 CSX 2317 For Sale on Ebay

I think $350k is possible but he should start the bid at $100k to get buyers in the bidding mood. He could leave the reserve at $350k. I don't think this guy is too serious about selling it. It will be fun to watch. Just my .02

 

The reserve is higher, since the start bid was 350k, with Reserve not Met

 

Now that guy has a nice driveway!

 

This is a great original car, I never thought it would be placed up for sale. That pic has 3342 and the mustang is 383, both were sold, I owned the Mustang for a very short period, sold it to buy my house, looking back I should have kept the car!
3342 was old to aquire an origianal GT40. He's serious about the sale, just turned down some money and a Shelby in trade.

I've done some work on the car right after he found it, car run's great, very original!

 

Wow! I guess I got that one wrong. I would love to see some more pics of the car. :blush:

 

The car was shipped to Shelby, this is per Tweedy when we talked to him at the first SAAC event in Fontana that the customer wanted the FIA flairs and the specal paint he did, it was the only one like that, the paint changes the depending on the angle of the sun. That's why I was trying to find info on Tweety and get it documented. The interior was changed in 97 to black.

This car was pulled out of long term storage in 1997 it had been sitting since 1972, I think there was 22 or 23k on the car.

 

It should be, the history was turned into them years ago he found it just before the last registry came out, the one he read when he found the car didnt show anything from 72 on. I'll see if he can scan some pic of the car sitting in the garage with 4 flats and boxes on the car cover. There was some pretty rare stuff the previous owner had in storage all with little miles on them!
The car in front of it was a 427, red with gold stripes and an old fuel injection setup on it

 

I wonder if the following statement in the eBay listing might be confusing to a buyer.
"Original paint as verified by original Shelby America painter "Tweety" in very good condition and unbelievable patina."

Perhaps he means that the "color" is original, not the paint. The Registry notes that the seller in 1972 advertised the car as having new paint and interior.

 

Original 289 CSX 2317 owner history?

Interesting so far...what about questions like
how many owners has it had since new?
Where (what city or Ford dealer) was it delivered first?
Any racing history?
At first glance seems high for a small block, I thought they started at $300,000 for a street car, or does this one have a "famous owner" or "racing background" that makes it worth more. It seems like cars "with a story" go for more as Shelby's former twin paxton Cobra 427 at Scottsdale, that one had a former famous owner (songwriter), intrigue (hiding it from the IRS) and even tragedy (the twin car having killed its driver when it got away from him).

Also if it got wider flares, did it also get wider wheels and tires way back when?

 

It is unknown how many owners of CSX2317 there were prior to being advertised "FOR SALE" by G.W. in 1972. So currently there are only two known owners: G.W. and the current owner. CSX2317 was picked up from Shelby American by "Town and Country" car dealer in 1964. Town in Country is/was located in Reseda, Ca. CSX2317 was purchased by the current owner sometime in the early 70's with large Halibrands as noted by Cobrafixer, "ala garage find." So sometime between when the Cobra was delivered to Shelby American to the G.W. "For Sale Listing" CSX2317 recieved FIA flares and a unique Blue Paint Job By Tweety. No racing history is noted either. If it was raced at all the rear fender flares would have been repainted several times, because the rear tires would have blistered the paint off of them. The current auction prices on street Small Block Cobras is in between 400-700thousand in today's market. Small Block Cobras with SCCA racing history range in the low 750thousand to several million dollars. CSX2317 will most likely sell between the 500-700thousand dollar region, at least that's were the price is heading.

 

Appreciation potential is mighty impressive

When I was visiting Lynn Park, the uncrowned King of the Cobraistis, at his wheel business about a year ago I asked him how much small block Cobras were worth unrestored and he said "$300,000."
Then I asked him how much they were worth "restored" and he said "$300,000"

It took my slow brain a few weeks to figure out the significance of what that meant-- it probably meant was that one man's "restored" is by no means another man's "restored" and that the odds are that if a serious collector buys a real CSX2000 or CSX3000 Cobra, that regardless of the former owner saying it's "restored" it will likely not be restored to the new buyer's defination of that word so it all has to be torn down to the bare metal and done over again anyway.

I think the appreciation in the CSX2000 and CSX3000 sector is pretty impressive especially when compared to Ferrari Daytonas which have been up, down and all around. The beauty of restoring a Cobra vis. a vis a '60s Ferrari is the low cost of the engine--what other half million dollar car can you find an engine block for in a junkyard?

 

I had an offer for CSX 2252 for $525K last month. Older (1980) restoration with about 1,200 miles from then. Less than 21k original miles now. I'm waiting for the conclusion of all the Arizona auctions this month before I sell it.

 

Should you wait?

Hey for a guy who sold his first gullwing Mercedes for $2500.
my advice on when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em is worth diddley squat
But I'd sell it now and take it only in Euros since they seem
to be appreciating faster than the once almighty dollar.
On the other hand, if the genuine AC Cobras in Scottsdale go for
unheard of sums in January then that might jack the price up of the original Golden Horde of 998 Cobras made "back in the day", only a fraction of which are for sale at any one time (what would you say --less than 1%?).
And then too it might pay to wait if you don't need the money right now, a case in point is that I remember a few years ago I was touting the virtues of the Bizzarrini Strada and bought and sold a few of them for as high as $65,000 and thought that was the end of it and now one just sold for over $500,000 and that's a car that, compared to the Cobra, hardly gets any publicity (though they regularly kick butt on European racing circuits in vintage racing which is publicity enough....)

 

Tweedy?

Excuse my ignorance, but who is Tweedy?
I know Junior Conway, House of Color, the absolute master
as far as surface quality
George Barris (who is still doing cars even tho he's in his '80s)

(Barris once painted a 427 Cobra pearl white)

Dean Jeffries (who has a shop but doesn't seem busy)
but never heard of Tweedy.
Is he famous in the custom car world? What era would that be? '50's, '60's, 70's?
Has he done a lot of Cobras? Can you educate us about him?

 

Re: Tweedy?

Robert 'Tweedy' Aldridge, Shelby American painter. A three page article on Tweety is in issue #75 of 'The Shelby American'
Wally, now you're going to say that you haven't belonged to SAAC to receive The Shelby American.
That's OK, you can buy a copy for $8.00 from their web site.

 

I only have a few issues of that magazine. There were a lot of great interviews
in the smaller size editions that preceded the color cover issues.

Getting back to Tweedy, since I don't have this issue, but he was the official factory painter (I thought that was Dennis Ercek but anyway...) is he backing up the contention that CSX2317 had a special paint job from the factory? I knew about the 427 sent to George Barris and I saw a metalflake blue 289 on the 101 freeway in 1965 but I didn't know that many were ordered with non-stock paint. I know the later model year of a car you are talking about the more unlikely it is you can get them to bend the rules on how the car is equipped, for instance in the new Ford GT I know of only one that was painted different at the factory, a color called Sonic Blue. That car was auctioned off at a charity gig and fetched quite a bit more than normal for charity.