Super Snake Cobra

1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake

Offered by Barrett-Jackson | Scottsdale, Arizona | January 17, 2015

Photo - Barrett-Jackson

Photo – Barrett-Jackson

This car will be one of the stars of Barrett-Jackson’s 2015 Scottsdale auction. It comes from the collection of Ron Pratte and he famously bought it at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale in 2007 for $5.5 million. What’s changed since that price was hammered down? Well, we lost Carroll Shelby. How about a little biblical history of this car:

Genesis: AC built a car called the Ace. It had a six-cylinder engine. Carroll Shelby stuffed a Ford V-8 under the hood. The Cobra was born.

Exodus: AC/Shelby built a limited run (23) Cobra 427 Competition models. Shelby converted one of these (this car) into the Super Snake – the Cobra to End All Cobras. It was a competition-spec Cobra made street-legal with the addition of bumpers and a windshield. They also supercharged the hell out of it.

Revelation: They built a second one for Bill Cosby who, appropriately, found it impossible to control and drive on the road. He gave it back. The next owner drove it off a cliff. Shelby retained this car most of his life. It’s the only one left.

The engine is a 427 (7.0-liter) V-8. It has two superchargers and puts out 800 horsepower. Ol’ Shel himself claims that the car will hit 60 mph in just over three seconds but I doubt there is any way you could possibly get the power down smoothly enough for it to happen. The top speed is still likely limited to 165 mph based on aerodynamics.

This is a fairly legendary car in both the auction world and the world of muscle cars. You can buy it this coming January, but you better have a big bank account. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $5,115,000.

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