This ‘Secret Weapon’ Custom Race Car Recreates a Carroll Shelby Classic

Silver Bullet.

Irvine, California’s Shelby Legendary Cars is doing for a Daytona Coupe race car what Classic Recreations did for a Ford Mustang Mach 1 of John Wick fame.

In 1964, legendary American automotive designer Carroll Shelby–memorably portrayed by Matt Damon in Ford V. Ferrari–requested that the chassis of one of six Daytona Coupes (CSX2286) be elongated to accommodate a NASCAR-inspired 427 cubic-inch big block instead of the stock 289 cubic-inch Ford small block. 

The experimental race car was supposed to be Shelby’s “secret weapon” for the 1964 Le Mans race, and one test driver estimated that it could have cracked 200 mph. Unfortunately, the modded Daytona was damaged in-transit and never ran a lap with its bolstered power plant.

Shelby Legendary Cars is building just six continuation big-block Daytona Coupes with the exact same specs as the “secret weapon.” 

All will feature an aluminum body that can be painted in any race livery, a three-inch lengthened chassis and hood capable of containing 550-horsepower, an all-aluminum 427 big block V8 that’s mated to a period-correct 4-speed manual transmission, and a Shelby CSX2000 (CSX2620-CSX2625) series serial number for documentation in the official Shelby Registry.

“This is an incredible opportunity to own a very rare collectible Shelby heritage race car,” said Gary Patterson, president of Shelby American. 

“Like the six small block cars built in the 1960s, these 427 powered Daytona Coupes will be a lasting tribute to another innovative Shelby racecar that would have caught the racing world off guard. These Coupes will be every bit as much a ‘secret weapon’ as Carroll had hoped for in 1964.”

Contact Shelby Legendary Cars here if you’re interested in picking up the Shelby CSX2000 Secret Weapon.