Shelby King Cobra hammers at $1.5 million

The 1963 Shelby Cooper Monaco King Cobra. Photo courtesy Barrett-Jackson.

When Carroll Shelby needed a sports racer to run in the 1963 USAC West Coast “Fall Series,” he turned to race car builder John Cooper for help. Cooper beefed up the frame of his Cooper Monaco sports racer, knowing that Shelby would equip the car with a heavy and powerful 289-cu.in. Ford V-8, and the resulting car became known as the Shelby King Cobra. Said to be the only surviving Shelby American King Cobra team car, chassis CM/3/63 sold for a hammer price of $1.5 million on Saturday night.

Offered for sale by Gooding & Company at Pebble Beach in 2008, the car carried a pre-auction estimate of $1.5 to $1.8 million, but failed to meet the reserve price. The King Cobra last changed hands in 2007, when it sold at Amelia Island for a price of $935,000.