This year is the fiftieth Anniversary of the Shelby Cobra, and that is being celebrated at the 2012 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, along with the life and spirit of the late, great CARROLL SHELBY. The event is at the legendary Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Northern California.
A large display tent has several fine, historical specimens of Shelby Cobras, plus a restored Shelby Cobra transporter parked outside the tent.
Inside the tent, PETER BROCK, designer of the Daytona Coupe, spent hours talking with people, posing and signing autographs. And if one has a brand new copy of SYLVIA WILKINSON’s “The Stainless Steel Carrot: An Auto Racing Odyssey-Revisited,” that can also be autographed. Brock played a major role in that book.
Brock said the Haggerty’s Shelby History gathering Thursday in Monterey was a huge success. The crowd was large and appreciative. Brock led the panel, which included LEW SPENCER, JOHN MORTON, and ALLEN GRANT, a Shelby driver and no relation to the late JERRY GRANT, who also was to have participated.
The 1956 Fiat Series 306/2 transporter started out life as the conveyance top race cars. Coach builder Bartoletti special designed the upscale transporter to accommodate three cars and tools.
Among the owners and users were Formula One teams of Maserati first and then LANCE REVENTLOW and his Scarab team. Shelby acquired the vehicle and used it in 1962-63 for transport the Shelby Daytona Coupes to European races. PETER BROCK, designer of the Daytona Coupe, said the transporter was only used in Europe – the American versions had to be transported the old fashioned way.
After Shelby, the conveyance went to DAVE PIPER and Lotus F1 in 1964-65. The iconic GT40’s had it for use in 1965-66, prior to it being bought by JOHN BAMFORD of JCB Equipment Co. for use through the sixties.
The transporter went Hollywood in 1970, masquerading as three different F1 transporters (Ferrari, Porsche, and Renault Mirage) in the movie, LeMans, with STEVE McQUEEN.
The transporter was held hostage by the family which owned U-Haul, while they bickered among themselves. No one laid claim and it rusted away in Mesa AZ for two decades.
DON OROSCO of Monterey, CA bought and restored the vehicle to better than original condition. His Monterey shop crew thought he was nuts. Mission Impossible. Orosco located a source in Italy, who somehow acquired all the bits and pieces – and took them to the landfill, only keeping some historical material. The California businessman had to basically start from scratch, finding gauges and parts. It took a year and a half. He said he found the last gauge a month before the annual Pebble Beach Concours. Orosco entered, with the vehicle displaying three Scarabs on the roof. It was an instant hit – both at the Concours and previously at a cameo appearance at the Monterey Historics.
The transporter with the most historic provenance will go on the block Saturday night at RM Auctions in Monterey, with suggested bids of $850,000 to $1.1 million.
