1964 SHELBY COBRA 289
CSX2513
For the 1964 and 1965 USRRC (United States Road Race of Champions) seasons, Carroll Shelby created six 289 race cars. With upwards of 450hp the stock 289 Cobra wheel and tire setup was overwhelmed. To get that power to the ground, the once-svelte AC body was made much more aggressive. Wider tires created the need for muscular fender flares that would go on to be a feature on later 427 Cobras. CSX2513 was one of the six USRRC 289s campaigned by the Carroll Shelby team. It is also one of only two of the USRRC Cobras built with dual side pipes. After its racing career the car went on to be used by the Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving.
While in service at the school CSX2513 was damaged, and then subsequently sold off to a private owner. That owner used parts from the car to restore his damaged Cobra, CSX2458. The remains of CSX2513 passed through the hands of various owners until it reached Dr. Gerard DePersio in 1980. Mike McCluskey brokered the deal between DePersio and its owner Larry Crossan, and would be charged with its restoration.
Certainly DePersio couldn't have made a better choice. Mike McCluskey has been restoring Shelby Cobras since 1969, and since then has completed over 50 Cobra restoration projects. Included in that group have been three of the original six Daytona Cobra Coupes, and three of the FIA / USRRC roadsters, including CSX2513.
In the late 80's McCluskey gathered together the remains of CSX2513, which included one chassis rail and parts of the substructure, engine parts, and body parts such as the pedals, doors, headlights, taillights and latches, and then began the long road to reconstruction. To make the rebuild as authentic as possible the chassis was restored by Brian Angliss of Autokraft in England, owner of the AC name and original tooling. Using that original tooling they would also go on to make a new body created from the original AC bucks. Finished in November of 1990, McCluskey and his team had restored the car to its exact 1964 FIA competition specifications.
DePersio would go on to show the finished car to Carroll Shelby who was impressed with the restoration and recognized CSX2513 as an "original/ restored -rebodied car"
Most recently the car was owned by James Farley, the Executive Vice President of Global Marketing, Sales and Service at Ford Motor Company. An accomplished amateur racer, Farley was looking for a Cobra to be competitive in historic racing. While the McCluskey restoration was still very fresh on the car, it had only seen the lawns of car shows and had never been raced. Farley set about a 5-year process of completely sorting the car out for the track. He entrusted the work to Bud Bennett and his team at RM Motorsports in Wixom, MI. Every system was gone through, rebuilt and made bulletproof. Hundreds of hours of testing were performed. The suspension received adjustable A-arms and adjustable Koni shocks front and rear. The rear end was made easily accessible, and an differential oil cooler was fitted. Custom sway bars were made front and rear. Period comp brakes were installed, making this car one of the best braking Cobras racing today. A new rollbar was installed, and the shifter was rebuilt to make every throw precise and quick. New instruments were installed. All the improvements were so efficient that in past season of seven races the car never suffered one mechanical issue.
Thanks to Farley's close connections to Roush Performance, CSX2513's engine was rebuilt by Bob Corn, a partner at Roush and Jack Roush's personal engine builder. Keeping to the original 289 cubic inch displacement Corn was able to coax 525hp and 480 ft/lbs of torque from the powerplant, balancing brute force with bulletproof reliability. The engine has a Dart block, steel crank, and correct period Weber carburation. All this power is connected to a Richmond 4-Speed T-10 transmission. As icing on the cake, while it was at Roush they fabricated a custom set of headers for the car. The total build came to just over $32,000. This is the same engine that took the car to a third place finish in the 2012 Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion Cobra race, featuring 41 competition Cobras. Recently freshened the engine has no hours on it. CSX2513 has its FIA papers.
Thanks to Farley's efforts CSX2513 is now a Cobra that can simply be hopped in and driven competitively at any historic venue.
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