The original Shelby Cobra, dubbed the CSX 2000, is heading to auction in the United States this August.
It will form part of RM Sotheby’s flagship Monterey event – offered for sale by the Carroll Hall Shelby Trust – on August 19 and 20 in California.
CSX 2000 was constructed and kept from new by the late Carroll Shelby and never left his ownership.
The vehicle marked the start of Carroll Shelby’s automotive legacy, and was created in 1962 in a small garage in Santa Fe Springs, California, when Shelby and a handful of hot-rodders shoehorned Ford’s then-latest V8 into a modified AC Ace chassis.
“When it comes to American sports cars, CSX 2000 is without peers. Its historical significance and impact on the global sports car scene cannot be overstated,” said Shelby Myers, Car Specialist, RM Sotheby’s.
“In the automotive world, CSX 2000 was the shot heard around the world; it revolutionised not only American racing, but the greater auto industry as a whole.
“Had Carroll Shelby never decided to squeeze that high-performance V8 into its engine bay, there would be no Cobra and certainly no Shelby American, nor GT40, nor the others that followed. The automotive landscape and sports cars as we know them would be very different.”
No word yet on how much this piece of automotive history is expected to fetch.
