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Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe history, as told by Peter Brock

Learn about the most beautiful Shelby ever from the man who designed it.

It's not every day that you get to ride in a car with the guy who designed it. In fact, that'll probably never happen for the vast majority of us, and certainly not in a vehicle so noteworthy as the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. But the folks at Hagerty recently found themselves in that exact situation, and fortunately they brought along a camera or two to capture the rare encounter.

The designer in question, as you might have guessed by now, is Peter Brock. Having played a central role in designing the original Corvette Sting Ray, Brock was brought on board at Shelby at a crucial time. The Cobra roadster had just about reached the limit of its development with its original bodywork, and to get it to go any faster, it needed a significant improvement in aerodynamics. Enter Peter Brock, and the rest, as they say, is history – and an interesting bit of it, at that.

These days, original Daytona Coupes can sell for tens of millions, accelerating well past the point that even a legend like Brock can afford. Fortunately, there are plenty of replica manufacturers keeping his design alive (and soon they'll be able to sell them here in America as turn-key vehicles instead of kits). Brock's own was made by Superformance out of South Africa, which is one of the leaders in the field – and which gets a considerable stamp of approval from the designer himself as he's driving one around.

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