A piece of American racing history just sold for a very un-American amount of money. A 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe brought an astonishing $42.905 million at the Gooding Christie’s Pebble Beach auction, making it the most expensive American car ever sold at auction, according to the auction house. The price blew past the auction house’s estimate of more than $20 million and nearly doubled the previous American-car auction record, held since 2018 by Gary Cooper’s 1935 Duesenberg SSJ, which sold for $22 million. Apparently beating Ferrari once wasn’t enough for Carroll Shelby’s creation. More than six decades later, it has now beaten Duesenberg, too.
The car is chassis CSX2300, one of only six Cobra Daytona Coupes built as Shelby American set out to challenge Ferrari’s dominant 250 GTO in international GT racing. Gooding Christie’s records identify CSX2300 as the third Daytona Coupe completed; the original prototype was CSX2287. Designer Peter Brock created the radically more aerodynamic closed body because the open Cobra roadster, despite its Ford V8 power, simply pushed too much air at the high speeds encountered on European circuits. The Daytona Coupe’s long roof, fastback profile and distinctive chopped-off Kamm tail gave Shelby the weapon he needed to go after Ferrari.
CSX2300 made its competition debut in the 1964 Tour de France Automobile with American Bob Bondurant and German Jochen Neerpasch driving. It immediately showed promise, winning the opening two stages before mechanical problems intervened. At one point it was leading at Le Mans during the event when a broken crankshaft ended its run. Ferrari ultimately held on to win the 1964 championship, but Shelby had demonstrated that his homegrown operation from California could run with—and sometimes ahead of—the best sports cars in Europe.
Shelby returned in 1965 and finished the job. CSX2300 was part of the campaign that delivered Shelby American the FIA World Manufacturers’ Championship for GT cars. The car finished sixth overall and third in class at Daytona, 13th overall and third in class at Sebring, and 12th overall and third in class at the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometers. At the season-ending 12 Hours of Reims, despite a connecting-rod failure that required an improvised repair, it finished ninth overall and second in class. Shelby American secured the championship, accomplishing what the Daytona Coupe had been created to do: defeat Ferrari on the international stage.
The racing story did not end there. After Shelby’s factory program was finished, CSX2300 went to Japan and became the only Daytona Coupe to continue a serious competition career after its Shelby American days. It raced there through 1968 and scored outright victories at Suzuka and Fuji in 1966. Eventually the car’s path became even more remarkable. In 1975, it was brought back to the United States and sold to Carroll Shelby himself, making CSX2300 the only Daytona Coupe ever personally owned by the man whose name appeared on it. Shelby retained the car until 1998.
The Daytona later underwent a historically sensitive restoration that preserved evidence of its racing life rather than erasing it. It has since appeared at major vintage events including the Monterey Historics, Goodwood Revival, Tour Auto and Goodwood Festival of Speed. Gooding Christie’s says the car retains reminders of its competition history, including evidence of damage sustained during the 1965 Sebring race. The previous owner had possessed CSX2300 since 2005 before offering it at Pebble Beach this year.
The identity of the new owner has not been disclosed, according to Carscoops. Whoever wrote the check bought much more than an extraordinarily rare Shelby. CSX2300 represents one of the defining chapters in American motorsports—a time when a small group of California hot rodders decided they could take on Ferrari at its own game, went to Europe and proved it. Sixty-one years after helping Shelby win a world championship, the Daytona Coupe has collected one more trophy: the auction record for an American automobile at $42.905 million.
