Only six of the hardtop competition Cobras were ever produced, this one being the very first.
Back in 1964 Carol Shelby was tearing up the tracks in the US with his Cobra roadsters, nothing stood a chance. But on the European tracks with longer straights it was a different story. The aerodynamics of the roadster limited its top speed, and the Ferrari’s would hold supreme. In 1965 Shelby was fixated on beating Enzo Ferrari. Because Ferrari were allowed to enter a special version of their road car, it created an opportunity for Mr. Shelby to do the same. Fortunately, Shelby had Pete Brock on his payroll, and Pete had studied aerodynamic texts that the Germans had put together from years of research. Pete also had a great eye for the automotive form, and with the help of the Shelby crew they designed the iconic Cobra Coupe. It was fantastic and the chassis number of the first one was CSX2287. Six were made in all.
The design was so great it allowed Shelby to win against Ferrari, but Ford were fixated on winning LeMans and wanted Shelby to devote his shop to the GT40. This left CSX2287 to get cleaned up and used on the public relations Cobra Caravan. It even spent some time on the Bonneville Salt Flats with Craig Breedlove and Bobby Tatroe, setting 23 international and national speed records.
Then it disappeared. It would take thirty years to turn up again.
Since Ford wanted Shelby to concentrate on the GT40, Carol put the coupes up for sale. The most he could get for any of them was about $4000, without their engines and transmissions. CSX2287 was sold first to Oscar Koveleski of Autoworld fame and then to Jim Russell of Russkit slot cars who converted it for street use, and then sold it to none other than Phil Spector. Phil accumulated a lot of speeding tickets and also found the race car did not work very well on the street, often becoming unbearably hot. Phil took it to a shop to inquire about further conversion to street use, but was told it would cost lots of money, and offered to scrap it for him for $800.
Now here is where the story gets a little foggy. Some say that Phil sold the car to his body guard for $1000 in 1971. The body guard, George Brand, then gave it to his daughter, Donna O’Hara, who stashed the car away in a barn, and wouldn’t tell anyone where it was or even admit that she had it in her possession.
Donna got divorced in 1982 and retained control of the car. In the last couple of years Robert Lavoie, an attorney representing Kurt Goss, a childhood friend of Donna’s, tried several times to buy it for half a million dollars, but she refused the offers.
On October 22, 2000, Donna went under a bridge Fulerton, CA, with her rabbits and a couple of bottles of gasoline. She poured the gasoline on herself and lit it. It took her 15 hours to die and she wouldn’t even tell the police who she was, she just told them to “Shut up”. It took over a month for her to be identified when friends reported her disappearance.
Goss claimed that she called him five days prior and told him that if anything happened to her, he was to take care of her personal belongings. Goss said that she wanted him to have the Daytona coupe along with three other cars of hers. When he heard that Donna had passed, he got in contact with Donna's mother and paid the outstanding storage charges, expecting to remove the coupe. The owner of the storage center would not let Goss remove the car without legal authority, and Donna had no will.
Meanwhile Martin Eyears, a rare car dealer from Montecito, closed a deal with Donna’s mother, Dorothy Brand, to buy the Coupe for $3,000,000. Donna’s father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and is unable to help with the questions regarding ownership. So Martin decides to sell it to a collector on the east coast for $4,000,000.
Then Phil Spector comes out, and says he still owns the car. Phil claims that he neither sold nor ever gave the car away, and that he had asked Brand to put it into storage for him.
December 8, 2001, the legal battle ends. Kurt Goss has been determined legal ownership, and Dorothy Brand is to pay him more than $800,000, since she sold the car. After estate and gift taxes, according to her lawyer, Milford Dahl, Dorothy Brand will end up with nothing.
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