The late Carroll Shelby’s personal 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake is going up for auction at Barrett-Jackson in the March Scottsdale auction this year. When it was sold back in 2007 at Barrett-Jackson, it fetched $5.5 million. That was the highest price of any American car to be sold at auction ever at the time. It’s since been passed, and the current top dog is a different Shelby Cobra that sold for $13.75 million.
Seeing as the bar is set rather high, we don’t expect Carroll’s car to retake the top spot. Regardless, this Cobra is going to bring in one seriously high figure at the hammer drop. The car itself is even more special than usual Cobras. It’s a 427 V8 that is fitted with two Paxton superchargers, so yes, Super Snake is a fitting name. Interestingly, though, it shifts via a three-speed automatic transmission, not a manual.
This car (CSX 3015) started life as a 427 Cobra Competition to be used in a European promotional tour in 1966. Sometime thereafter in 1967, it was transformed into the Super Snake that it is today and was renamed the Cobra Semi-Competition. It didn’t have mufflers, a windshield or bumpers at the time, so it wasn’t road legal.
There was only one other Super Snake built, and it was a street car variant. The person who ended up buying that car drove it off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean, and unfortunately died in the crash.
That makes this Shelby Cobra Super Snake the only original one of its kind from 1966. A huge amount of the car is still original, too. It was never fully restored, as a “renew” process was applied to it instead to keep it in its most pure and factory state.
We’ll be watching to see how much this one goes for at the Scottsdale auction next month. It should be an expensive ride.
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