Only a little OT,,,,,Road & Track has a story about the Daytona Cobra Coupe. Fifty years old. Only six built originally.
One of them was wrecked a couple of years ago while running a vintage race. I'm sure it is being fixed, how do you total a car that valuable!
Earlier this week, I read there are going to be 50 more built, and for sale. They will all be gl*** bodied. Wonder what rich folks will scarf them up?
A friend of mine has one of these later tagged coupes. They are genuine Shelby just not built 50 yrs. ago. It's right here in the Hudson Valley. Pat
You know when I read they wrecked one of the originals, I have to admit it made me smile. Those things were meant to run. There is not a single part on those cars that was not designed to be driven all out. I know they have a stupid value and irreplaceable history but just knowing someone had one and ran the hell out of it the way it was meant to run does my heart good.
Its not easy but it can be done all you have to do is wad it up beyond repair. LOL They were cool cars. I still like the AC Cobra better in general but that Daytona bodies were cool cars.
At the shop I used to work at, we used to resurrect cars that would have been totaled if they were anything else. I remember when I started they were finishing up the bodywork on an early Zagato that was driven off a cliff somewhere. The guy working on it was telling me about how it looked like a ball of tin foil when it was brought in. He showed me the steering wheel. It looked more like a taco than a wheel. Apparently the guy's legs bent it up on his way out of the windshield. I guess if it's worth enough, it will never die.
We used to rebuild totals too. A car being totaled has to do with value and cost of repair, it doesn't mean not repairable. Sometimes the repair is more of a reconstruction and not much of the original body is used. I worked the ch***is and drive train on an old Bently that then got sent to a coach builder to get sheetmetal work. he basically used the ch***is and firewall and the rest was all pretty much new sheet metal. But it was coach built from the beginning anyway and it matched the original perfectly. The fella that owned it said it was more of a look at me car then a restoration. It had been hit pretty hard in the rear hard enough to drive it into a wall and accordion it.