1966 Shelby 427 Cobra S/C

Click photo for enlarged view.

The crown jewel of my Shelby collection is this original 427 S/C Cobra, CSX3049. I became the fourth owner of this incredible machine after buying it from Tom Novak, 3049's owner of a staggering 41 years, in January 2011. It has a mere 8,000 original miles from new. The 5th to last S/C built, it was delivered new in Shelby's signature Guardsman Blue, the color which it remains in today.

While 3049 has rarely been seen in public, Tom took it to a number of SAAC events through the years with good reults! 3049 appeared at SAAC-14 (Pocono, PA) 7/89 where it won 1st place in the popular vote 427 Competition Cobra class. The car took home a 3rd place trophy from SAAC-15 (Dearborn, MI) 7/90, garnered 2nd place at SAAC-16 (Charlotte, NC) 7/91, and took another 2nd at SAAC-20 (Atlanta, GA) 7/95. It won a 1st place award in the 427 Comp Cobra popular vote class at SAAC-25 (Lime Rock, CT) 7/00, and repeated at SAAC-29 Michigan Intnl Speedway (Brooklyn, MI) 7/04. At the latter, it was also voted Best Cobra. CSX3049 was pictured in the 1/93 issue of Muscle Car Review, p. 66; and in The Shelby American, #64, P. 24, with its NO FAKE Ohio license plate.

The short story of what exactly an "S/C" is follows:

Race cars for the Street: The 427 Cobra S/C:

Even though the SCCA certified the new 427 Comp Cobra for 1965, it wasn't of much help as not many privateer racers could swing the $10,000-plus price tag of one. By the end of 1965, just 16 427 Comp cars had been sold out of the SCCA and FIA-mandated 100 cars homologation minimum, leaving quite a large surplus sitting outside of Shelby American's factory at LAX.

So what to do with these unsold Comp cars that were just withering away in the hot California sun? Simple- drop the compression ratio just enough to tolerate Sunoco 260 ("It's a Gas!"), add an electric radiator cooling fan, street Blue Dot Goodyear tires, barely comply with noise restrictions with the addition of some baffles in the side pipes, slightly modify the body for tire clearance, and call them 427 Cobra "Semi-Competition" models. Oh, and rather than have prices that started at around the $10,000 the Full Competition cars were listed at, lower the price for the S/C to $8500, about a grand-daddy over the $7500 Street 427 Cobras cost. For many buyers, the thousand bucks extra to have a bonafide race car for the street was well worth it, if only in bragging rights at the Dogs-n-Suds drive-in alone!

As a result of their lower price and nearly identical specifications to the full competition version, many S/Cs were purchased by people who used them as race cars. All told, just 29 427 S/C Cobras were sold. They are undoubtedly the most lethal, baddest Cobras ever to roll out of Shelby American ready to wear license plates.