Meet the Fleet – Sportscars: Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe

• BODY: Auto World
• WHEELS: Vincent
• TIRES: Road Race Replicas

I have bee-yatched about this in a previous “New Build” post but it bears repeating: why-WHY!-won’t Auto World re-press this awesome car??? This red version of the Cobra Daytona coupe is one of 4 versions made, and one of the hardest to find. And because its also one of the best looking, if you are after one, prepare to pay dearly for it: I won this one on an ebay auction in the spring of 2020 after going up to $77.00, and my guess is it would cost more than that now. This was from “Release 5” of the Auto World Thunderjets, before they started using the traction magnets, when the chassis were a lot slower than they are now. It arrived in its original jewel case, which was nice, but I had to relegate the chassis to my “museum” and supply one of my own with performance worthy of such a beautiful body. It was originally fitted with black-finish Bullet wheels from Road Race Replicas, which looked great, but I wanted it to looked even better, so I have since refitted it with the very hard to find Halibrand-style wheels from Vincent, which I had to order direct from the manufacturer in Germany, since that was the only way I could get them. They look perfect on this car-in fact, I believe they were made for this car. I did retain the Road Race Replicas tires, and it now performs near the very top of the sports car class…just like the real thing!

Release 5 must date from some time in the very early 2000’s, and now here we are in 2021 and although Auto World just issued a new release of muscle cars, the Cobra Daytona coupe is nowhere to be seen, nor is the even more desirable Ford G.T. 40. I guess they literally broke the mold after making these; I can’t see any other reason why they’re forcing us slotting enthusiasts to fight tooth-and-nail over the few 15+ year old copies out there. As you can see from these pictures, this is one that’s worth fighting over!