In late 1963, a group of Shelby American employees led by racing driver Ken Miles met to conceive the company’s next Cobra-based racing car with a goal of besting Ferrari on long European circuits like the Nürburgring, Monza, and Le Mans. The outgoing 289-powered Competition Cobras were campaigned with immense success, but could not reliably produce over 400 hp, which was needed to compete going forward. The solution proposed by Miles was to install Ford’s NASCAR-specification 427 cid big-block V-8 engine which featured cast-aluminum heads, oil pan, high-rise manifold, and timing chain. This platform could reliably produce 485 hp at 6,500 rpm for hours on end.

In order to house the new engine in the Cobra’s chassis, the distance between the front longitudinals was widened from 17” to 22”, leading to wider bodywork, which required the construction of a new body buck at AC Cars. Additionally, the front suspension was upgraded from the outgoing transverse leaf spring to modern independent front suspension utilizing swing arms and integral coil shocks. Shelby set out to build 100 examples of the 427 Competition to meet FIA homologation requirements, but ultimately just 23 examples were completed, meaning the car’s competition application was limited to privateer teams competing in SCCA as opposed to larger venues in Europe.

The Cobra 427 Competition model presented here, chassis CSX 3011, was invoiced by AC Cars on January 11, 1965, and completed by Shelby American on May 14. Built as part of the first run of nineteen 427 Competition chassis, this car was the only example of this initial group that was not invoiced to a privateer racing team. Instead, the car was retained by Shelby American for promotional purposes.

By September 1965, the Cobra was painted Guardsman Blue with white stripes. Shelby lent the car, along with a road-going 427, to Jerry Titus for the November 1965 issue of Sports Car Graphic magazine. In the article, “Cobras for Street & Competition,” Titus tests the car at Riverside Raceway and summarizes its driving dynamics, writing, “Obviously, the 427 Cobra is a brute. There’s no other word for it…it took a lot of horsing and a very hot approach to get hung into a drift that would allow the power to be turned back on. Otherwise, throttle-application only produces more of the ‘let’s-go-straight’ attitude.”

This 427 was also part of the famed Cobra Caravan, a publicity tour in which a GT 350 R, Cobra Daytona Coupe, and GT40 were shown alongside this car in 12 cities around America to celebrate the Daytona Coupe’s 1965 World Championship victory.

Next, in February 1966, CSX 3011 was loaned to MGM Studios for use as the hero car in the film Spinout, starring Elvis Presley. MGM retained the car for 10 weeks at a cost of $4,000. In the film, Presley plays rock singer Mike McCoy, who is touring with his band and also races a white Cobra, towing the car to the Santa Fe Road Races with a Duesenberg Model J Sport Phaeton (J-116). Original Guardsman Blue paint is visible under the Cobra’s hood in various scenes.

CSX 3011 found its first private owner in October 1966, in Formula 1 driver Moisés Solana. He ordered the racing Cobra through Ford of Mexico, at a cost of $11,393 and specified that shoulder harnesses be fitted. Solana reportedly campaigned the car throughout Mexico and the US under Grupo Iuso sponsorship, as seen in copies of period photographs on file.

Solana would retain the Cobra until his untimely passing on July 27, 1969, when he wrecked a McLaren M6B at the Valle de Bravo-Bosencheve Hillclimb, west of Mexico City. His friend and fellow racing driver Juan Carlos Bolaños purchased the Cobra from his estate and continued to campaign it throughout Mexico. At the Presidential Grand Prix in 1973, Bolaños was leading when he pulled the Cobra into the pits, and a fire broke out due to a fuel spill. Following this pit fire, the Cobra was repainted red. Bolaños continued to race the car until, one day at the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit, he lent the car to driver Manuel Cardona. Cardona lost control on the circuit’s famous banked Peraltada corner, damaging the Cobra’s nose.

Well-known Cobra and sports car enthusiast Jim Southard of Marietta, Georgia, discovered the dormant Competition Cobra in Mexico in 1978, and later sold the car to collector Lorne Leibel of Ontario, Canada, on April 9, 1980. Leibel enlisted Chuck Gutke’s Cobra Restorers of Kennesaw, Georgia, to restore the aged Cobra, utilizing new aluminum coachwork built by Brian Angliss. During this restoration, the car was finished in Rangoon Red. The 427 engine’s aluminum cylinder heads were also replaced at this time and semi-competition-style twin Holley carburetors were installed.

Leibel sold the Cobra to a private collector in 1993 and reacquired it in 2006, having regretted parting with the car.

In an effort to return CSX 3011 to its press duties specifications, Leibel entrusted specialists Cobra Automotive Inc. of Wallingford, Connecticut, to perform a complete restoration. Multiple SAAC judges and other Shelby historians were engaged to restore the car as accurately as possible – and correspondence on file documents over $282,000 in expenses. The Cobra made its post-restoration debut at the 2011 SAAC-36 in Alton, Virginia, where the incredibly powerful and fast Competition Cobra was met with great acclaim and awarded Gold in Class.

Now a part of a significant collection of sports and racing cars in the Northeastern US, CSX 3011 sits in a league of its own, with its early Shelby American press duties and Elvis Presley screen time. Moreover, it is one of just 23 Competition chassis built – only a handful of which exist today.

Having been returned to its September 1965 configuration of Guardsman Blue with white stripes, black-painted, single-roll hoop, full windshield, white exhaust pipes, and proper single Holley 780 CFM carburetor, this Competition Cobra is sure to be a welcome entry at the most exclusive concours, vintage racing events, and vintage Shelby and Cobra gatherings worldwide.