New photos from the painter have me pumped. The paint is on and they are now color sanding and prepping the nose for the aluminum plating. I just got the pics and while I should wait until it is all the way done for a grand reveal with a staged photo, I can’t. I just need to share some good news after the run I have been on.
Is the color scheme beyond your expectation? 
Yeah, looks like what I have in my mind. I’m sure it will pop a lot more once color sanded, buffed, and in good light but I’m still buzzing with just these photos.
Beautiful tease! I imagine resting heart rate is meaningless right now.
I was fortunate to attend the AMG Driving Academy at Laguna Seca Raceway a few years back. I got to track the then current SLS AMG, a $224,900 supercar at the time. The course lives up to expectations. The other car I tracked was the SL63 AMG. It felt like the SLS with velvet gloves. The only distraction with the SLS was the combination of the gull wing doors and my tall frame with a racing helmet. The helmet rattled around a bit!
Pardon my ignorance. Is that a Ford GT40?
I like cars (Volkswagen only) but I don’t like a neighbor’s custom exhaust (illegal exhaust) that penetrates new construction and excellent windows. It’s SO loud that the owner must be murdering his hearing. He seems to really love that car.
No worries, You are pretty close, but it’s a rare car most people don’t know that came directly before the Ford GT40. It is a recreation of the 1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. In my opinion, the coolest car in American racing history, which nobody knows. Also, there are GT40 parts on the shelf behind my car.
By the time Carroll Shelby quit personally racing cars and came back to America, he hated Enzo Ferrari. Carroll has become friends with Enzo’s son Dino while over in Europe racing but Enzo ended up forbidding Dino from being around Carroll because the uncultured American was beneath them. Shelby also was also friends with some drivers that died racing for Ferrari at the time and felt that Enzo simply thought of them are replaceable and would never implement safety features in his cars at the cost of speed. When Carroll Shelby later saw Ferrari personally piss off Ford by backing out of a deal for Ford to purchase Ferrari at the last second, he went to Ford with a proposal to kick Ferraris butt at their own game on their own turf. Shelby got Ford to give him engines to put in the British AC Ace to race with and the iconic Shelby Cobra was born.
Some people know that story and the movie Ford vs. Ferrari with Matt Damon and Christian Bale uses part of it. The coolest part of that story is hidden in the middle.
While the Shelby Cobra dominated everything in America when it came out, it turned out that it was not fast enough on the European tracks to best Ferrari. As a convertible, the Cobra would create a lot of aero drag and even with the powerful Ford motors, they toped out around 165 mph and could not run the speeds the Ferraris would run on the long straits in Europe. Ford went and bought a race car from a European company named Lola that they named the GT40. Shelby had a young designer named Peter Brock, who was previously the youngest ever designer hired by GM and who drew the original design for the C2 Corvette. Brock drew a new body for the Cobra chassis. The FIA rules allowed any modifications to the body that you wanted, so he designed a coupe instead of the convertible AC had designed. He was 23 at the time and his design was radical for the period, went against established principles, and nobody thought it would work but him. Shelby even payed a famed aerodynamic consultant from Boeing to review the design and was told it wouldn’t work. However, Brock believed in his design and convinced Shelby to give him 90 days to build it with any of the guys in the garage he could personally convince. Luckily, Brock was able to get Remington and Ken Miles to help. They and a handful of others built the first car themselves and proved the design worked. They shipped it over to Europe and had another body built over there so they would have two cars to race in the 1964 season.
In 1964, it took the team a bit to find their footing but near the end of the season it was clear they were going to be able to pass the Ferraris in points to win the overall championship. The Shelby was now clearly faster than the Ferraris, so Enzo used his political influence in Italy to have the final race of the season, which was the Italian race, cancelled. It prevented Shelby from getting the points he needed to take the overall championship for 1964 and showed just the type of guy Enzo really was.
When Carroll Shelby found out Enzo Ferrari had the final race of the season cancelled, he painted “NYF AIM” on each of the two cars. It stood for “Next Year, Ferrari’s A## Is Mine!” He was pissed but he was not taking his ball and going home. He was coming back next year with four more cars and he was going to embarrass Ferrari at his own game.
In 1965, Shelby and his small team went to Europe and became the first and are still the only American team to win the FIA GT Endurance Championship.
Up to this point the Ford GT40 has been unstable as speed and was routinely crashed, so Ford threw money at Shelby and his team to drop their car and fix the GT40 to help Ford win at La Mans. Ford had multiple teams with Shelby’s just being one, but the Shelby team fixed the car and helped Ford finish 1,2,3 at La Mans in 66. Ford went on to win at La Mans in 67 and 68 as well and their marketing team made their story famous, while the Shelby story died off.
There were only 6 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe’s originally built and they were never for sale to the public. The last time one sold was around 17 years ago and it went for $7.25 million, which was a record for an American car. I can’t afford that, but the car resonates with me and I’ve got a load of determination. So I bought parts and now I’m “almost there.”
Great history
Hearing the rest of the story (I miss Paul Harvey) makes me want to watch the movie again with a bit more attitude.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the informative and extensive reply. Great stuff!
me too.
E46 M3 Coupé? What is that color?
Steel Gray over Imola Red…
I’ve got a 2025 M240i with xDrive. Race ya! 
Apex ARC-8 Wheels?
You sir, are a man of impeccable taste. Here is my old car on ARC-8s and my current car is on VS. Unfortunately, rodents were also drawn to my wheels, climbed up into my engine bay and ate my wiring harnesses. It keeps getting pushed back one day at a time at the dealership and I just learned they were not be finished this afternoon, again. Tomorrow will be two weeks of repairs and this has now cost me more than my wheels.
