Meet the Fleet – Sportscars: Cobra Daytona Coupe

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

Although it’s the last one that I’m profiling, this metallic green Cobra Daytona was the 1^st one that I bought. This is one of AW’s earlier releases and it hasn’t been production since the early 2000’s for reasons no one can seem to explain. My aversion to odd numbers wasn’t applied to this car since I own three of the four versions that were made; the one I don’t have is identical to this one except for being blue instead of green. I elected to change the pre-printed racing number; it came bearing the #2 but one of the Johnny Lightning Corvette Grand Sports already in my fleet bore that number, and all things being equal it seemed like the earlier arrival should keep its number (although, admittedly, part of what helped with that decision was that I had some nice Ultra-Cal black-on-white roundels that fit the Cobra perfectly!)

She rides on an uber-fast light brown chassis-the type sold new with the “Barn Finds” series-and is one of only 2 cars fitted with the Vincent “Halibrand” style wheels. This style has been very hard to find, and the only way I’ve been able to get them was to order them directly from Vincent in Germany, which is not only pricey but of course means a long wait. It was worth it though, because I can’t imagine a better wheel style for this car. It is ferociously fast, but due to its low profile and ground hugging stance it can corner at high speeds so it can really use that power; many cars can’t. Even so, its not easy to handle: in spite of its abilities it is a little “crash prone” due to the speed at which it moves! That, of course, is really more an issue of driver error than a problem with the car, so rather than focus on my driving, let’s focus on the driver…

That would be Travis “Turbo” Tunstall, a Scottish-born naturalized American who, as a young man, worked for Shelby American in that firm’s glory years and now, years on, has acquired one of the few examples of one of the cars he helped create. This is an early example from 1964 and, although it is not the original block, runs with a Ford 90 degree 289 small block V8 spec’d in a way as identical as possible to the original. “Turbo’s” track times are fast but the car has gotten away from him on more than one occasion, sacrificing a race win. Even so, a full tournament win looks to be in the cards, as the Daytona coupe is proving itself to be as formidable on the track at Drag City in 1984 as it was when it was first built 20 years earlier.