In 1964, Carroll Shelby was keen to grab one of the holy grails in motorsports, the trophy of Le Mans 24 hours. He invited renowned fabricator John Ohlsen to lengthen the chassis of a Shelby Cobra Daytona coupe by three inches and replace its 289 cubic inch, Ford engine with a 427 cubic inch, NASCAR inspired big block. The ‘secret weapon’ of Shelby’s 1964 Le Mans entry car was ready.

Unfortunately, the truck carrying the secret weapon crashed and the modified car would not be repaired in time for Le Mans. It did make it to Le Mans the next year featuring the 289 cubic inch engine and under Shelby American, but it did not finish the race.

Fast forward to 2017, six aluminium cars were built to Shelby’s specifications for the 427 big block Daytona, featuring a Shelby serial number from CSX2620 to CSX2625. CSX2621 is now available for sale by Hillbank. The rare continuation car has racing number and livery as how it would have appeared on the 1964 example, while the engine of a 550 plus output is paired with a period-correct 4-speed manual transmission. While the original big block did not make it to the race track, the rare continuation car would be able to sprint as it should.