CSX2196, the 1964 Shelby 427 Prototype Factory Team Cobra, is Lot R919 at Mecum Kissimmee 2027. Photo: Mecum Auctions
Lot R919 at Mecum Kissimmee on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2027, is the 1964 Shelby 427 Prototype Factory Team Cobra, carrying an estimate “in excess of $25 million.” The Nov. 10 press release distributed through Motor Sports NewsWire gives the same number as a “value” and omits the lot number and the chassis number. The lot page supplies both. The car is CSX2196, and Mecum will sell it in the Apex Collection at Kissimmee 2027 (Jan. 5-17, Osceola Heritage Park).
Mecum calls it one of two Cobras built in the United States at Shelby American, the other being the prototype Daytona Coupe. Neither the release nor the lot page says whether the car carries a reserve.
What was rebuilt
According to the lot page, CSX2196 started as a 289-style roadster fitted with a 427 and raced as a Shelby American factory team car at the 1964 12 Hours of Sebring. Afterward Shelby American stripped it to the frame rails, lengthened the chassis three inches and converted it to a Daytona Coupe-style chassis with backbone bracing. It received a one-off lightweight alloy body whose front and rear sections flip up, which is where the “Flip Top” name comes from. Mecum says Peter Brock confirmed the nickname.
The roadster that ran at Sebring is therefore not the car being sold. The lot is the Nassau configuration, and Mecum says Legendary Motorcar spent four years restoring it with original or new-old-stock parts “to perfect 1964 Nassau specs.” The same list calls CSX2196 one of the most original factory team Cobras, citing its original chassis, body, engine, brakes, suspension, radiator and gauges, and 4,096 miles from new. Those are original parts of the rebuilt car. The lot page doesn’t say which, if any, survive from the Sebring roadster.
The engine
The lot page describes the engine as an original, numbers-matching, all-aluminum Ford experimental 427 side-oiler. The aluminum casting allowed larger cylinder sleeves, which makes it a 390 cubic-inch engine, so the release writes it as 427/390. It runs four 58mm Weber carburetors (Mecum says only 15 sets were made) and was built in period by Ford engine builder Mose Nowland. Mecum quotes more than 500 horsepower and about 1,800 pounds.
The same list also says this is the engine that was first installed in the CSX2286 Daytona Coupe, bound for Le Mans, before it went into CSX2196. “Numbers-matching” and “first in another car” are both on the page. Neither is explained further.
Who built it, and how it ran
The release says Ken Miles conceived and developed the car, and the lot page calls it his personal project. Mecum’s separate preview of its Kissimmee 427 Cobras describes a 1964 prototype with flip-up front and rear sections and credits mechanic Ted Sutton with fitting the 427 into a Cobra chassis, with Miles and Bob Bondurant helping with testing and redevelopment. That article also says the car retired from Sebring with engine failure, driven by John Morton. The release mentions Sebring without a result.
At Nassau, the release says the car took an eight-second lead on the opening lap. The lot page adds that it was built to beat the Corvette Grand Sports and says the lead came over GT40s and Ferrari 275 and 250 LM entries. Mecum’s preview says the car showed its pace at the December 1964 Bahamas Speed Weeks “despite reliability issues.” None of the three documents gives a finishing position. The lot page also cites internal Ford paperwork showing Ford saw the car in the Bahamas and concluded the GT40 needed a 427 to win Le Mans. The paperwork is not reproduced.
Where it has been shown
Mecum lists a lawn showing at Pebble Beach, a Premiere award at the Shelby American Automobile Club national convention and First in Class at the Amelia Island Concours. The other Shelby prototype in the story sold at Pebble Beach in August: Daytona Coupe CSX2300 set the American auction record, a car we covered on the lawn there. Mecum’s preview of its Kissimmee 427 Cobras lists a different car, the 1965 CSX3018, as Lot 1178331.
Sources: Mecum Auctions press release via Motor Sports NewsWire (Nov. 10, 2026); Mecum lot page for Kissimmee 2027 Lot R919; Mecum Kissimmee 427 Cobra and GT350R preview article. All photos supplied by Mecum Auctions.
If the original Sebring roadster is gone and the car at Kissimmee is the Nassau rebuild, is a factory prototype worth more for what it became, or less for what it stopped being?
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