Once up on a time, Carroll Shelby wanted to kick ass in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. To do it right, he decided to lengthen a Daytona to fit a big block inspired by NASCAR, but the car never made to the race. Now Shelby American is bringing it back for a limited run of heritage cars.
Six gorgeous modified aluminum Daytona Coupes with 550 horsepower big block engines and four-speed manual transmissions will be produced, matching the original 1964 car which supposedly could easily hit 200 mph in the race. The company says they’ll paint it in whatever racing livery the owner chooses.
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The original car, CSX2286, was completed in time to race, but it was damaged when the truck that was carrying it to Le Mans crashed and it couldn’t be repaired in time. The car did eventually make it to Le Mans the next year, but it had been converted back to its small block configuration (and never finished the race). Shelby American is producing the six big block cars to settle Carroll Shelby’s “unfinished business”.
The first heritage car debuted this weekend in polished aluminum, as seen above, which is the guise the car would have appeared in for the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s a good look, but that’s got to be killer on the eyes while driving in sunlight, right? Who cares, you’ll have to squint and just look like even more of a badass.
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