The Shelby Daytona (also referred to as the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe) was a coupé based loosely on the AC Cobra roadster. It was built for auto racing, specifically to take on Ferrari in the GT class. Just six Daytona coupes were built in 1964 and 1965, with Shelby reassigned to the Ford GT40 project after that. Pete Brock designed the car's bodywork, while Bob Negstad designed the car's suspension. Negstad also designed the chassis and suspension for the GT40.

Five Shelby Daytona cars were constructed in Italy, one car, known to collectors as CSX2287, was manufactured in the United States. Ownership of the cars was recorded for five cars, however records for the sixth car were lost in the mid-1970s. For a long time car historians and collectors feared the sixth car was lost.

In 2001 the car was discovered in a rental storage unit in California. The owner Donna O'Hara had committed suicide by burning herself alive. The car had remained undiscovered for about three decades. Due to its estimated worth of $4,000,000 the car was part of an extensive legal battle between her mother who sold the car to a collector in Pennsylvania, and a friend of Ms. O'Hara who was the recipient in her will of the contents of the storage unit. An earlier owner of the car appears to have been music producer Phil Spector who had been known to drive it on the streets of Los Angeles. Built for high-speed sprints, the cab became uncomfortably warm as the car engine heated up, among other problems. "It wasn't a street car; it was a race car," Shelby said. Still, Spector drove it on the streets, and legend is that Spector racked up so many speeding tickets, his lawyer advised him to get rid of the car before he lost his license.

The discovery of this car has been dubbed as the greatest find in the history of car collecting.

CSX2287 has been mechanically reconditioned and is on display at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia.

In 2005, Ford and Shelby created a sports coupe dubbed "Ford Shelby GR-1", with a sleek body and the new V10 powering the new Shelby Cobra. Carroll Shelby has explained that he does not want it to be called a "Cobra", but it does bear resemblance to the Daytona.

View also:
Shelby Cobra - Shelby GT500 - Shelby Classic - Shelby GR-1 - Shelby GT - Shelby GT-150 - Shelby GT-H

Check out the Shelby Daytona wallpapers and Shelby Daytona Pictures (pics) collection below: