First Cobra in Guardsman Blue!
Original 9.674 miles on the clock!
Complete documentation to the very first day!
Entry in the World Registry of Cobras & GT40s!

In the year 1954, Carroll Shelby, a Texan from a modest background, set out to prove himself in the world of racing. His ability and talent soon gained him access to some of the major racing teams. After taking part in a race in a hopelessly inferior Allard, John Wyer, the legendary head of the Aston Martin team, put Shelby into one of his own cars, a DB3S. In the following years, Shelby also races for Ferrari and Maserati but, in 1959, returns to Aston Martin celebrating the greatest success of his career, winning the 24 Hour of Le Mans together with Roy Salvadori.
Before that year was over, however, Carroll Shelby was forced to listen to his doctors and end his career owing to congenital heart trouble; he already had had to rely on nitro-glycerine capsules under his tongue to keep him going on the racetrack. For the longest time, Shelby had had this vision of coming up with a competitive, North American race car. Though in 1957 his ideas had been rejected by General Motors, he started a fresh attempt after his retirement as a race car driver and began to look for suitable ingredients.
He acquires an engine from the young Ford manager Lido A. Iacocca, a hot 260 cubic inch V8. The chassis came from Britain, from AC Cars, whose experienced Ace suddenly found itself without a real engine, after troubles at Bristol no longer made it possible to use their BMW 328 based engine. At this point, the story of the Cobra starts to come together and in February of 1962 the first unpainted prototype crosses the Atlantic to be equipped with engine and transmission by Shelby and his crew at Santa Fe Springs. Less than eight hours later, the assembled car leaves the workshop and turns out to be much faster than anything Carroll Shelby could have imagined.
The press soon runs out of superlatives while AC and Shelby are trying to get some sort of serial production going. AC had gone the extra mile and replaced the former cute 135 HP, bridling more than twice that power in the car’s frame, but many minor kinks remain to be ironed out. After 75 units, a larger and more powerful 289 cubic inch engine was introduced, followed a little later by rack and pinion steering, turning the Cobra Mk. I into the Mk. II. In late 1964, the Cobra gets another shot of testosterone in the form of 7 litres of engine displacement, 500 HP, helical springs and generous wings becoming the monster known as „Cobra 427“. In the GT-Class, the Cobra’s results were more than merely decent and Shelby came second in the Brand World Championships behind Ferrari. In the open class, even the few aerodynamic Daytona coupés don’t stand a chance against the superior models from the Old World. After just 998 Cobra units the cooperation with AC comes to an end and Shelby turns his attention to a new project with the title Ford GT40. In this car he saw a chance for the empire to strike back. Which it did, and how! Four years running at Le Mans!

This Cobra bears the chassis number CSX2104. It is the 104th unit built, the 29th using the 289cui engine, and the very first in beautiful Guardsman Blue, the future colour of all Shelby race cars. A copy of the invoice shows that AC Cars billed Shelby American on 13 March 1963 for the car and shipped it to the US with special packing precautions for the windscreen. According to Rick Kopec’s World Registry of Cobras and GT40s, Shelby American sold CSX2104 on 6 May to Tasca Ford on Rhode Island, together with numbers 2109 and 2112. Shortly after taking receipt of the three Cobras, Bob Tasca informs Shelby that he will give up his Cobra dealership. He keeps 2109 and has White Griffith Ford in Hicksville, New York, pick up 2104 and 2112. On 27 August, Shelby American issues an invoice for the CSX2104 to the New York dealer. CSX2104 then goes to Indiana, first to Allen County Motors in Fort Wayne and later to Pete Fall Ford in Elkhart. As the original receipt dated 6 April 1964 shows, Morris L. Ruch purchases the Cobra from them for his wife Rozella, for the sum of 5.600 $ and in the name of the Kinner Homes Corp.

In 1973, the Ruchs relocate to Kailua Kona on Hawaii, and Rozella brings along her beloved Cobra. Original freight documents show that the car had only been driven for 7,198,2 miles at that time, with another 2.000 adding up by the time of her death in 1987. In January 1989, Morris Ruch sold his deceased wife’s Cobra to Walt Wilkinson in California, with 9.159 miles on the clock. After he noticed to his surprise that the car with the chassis number CSX2104 came with documentation for 2112 he soon discovered that the 2104 papers had stayed with the owners of 2112. The mix-up had occurred in 1963 at White Griffith Ford and nobody had noticed it in 25 years. The new owner corrects this mistake and knocks the blue Cobra back into shape. Most recently the Cobra was registered in 2008, in New Jersey, before the current owner brought it to Germany the same year. Having spent the first half of its life with the original owner and the second half in the tender care of collectors, this Cobra has remained one of the most original and authentic surviving examples of this car. Throughout its existence it had been spared mistreatment or the dangers of the racetrack.

Today the odometer shows just 9,674 miles, a little over 15.000 km. Over a total of 52 years! This is an opportunity to acquire a piece of automotive history, with a background and in a condition that would be difficult to match. The fact that it is the very first Cobra painted in Carroll Shelby’s favourite colour already makes it unique but the story of its life demonstrates that it is indeed peerless! There's no other Cobra like this one.

FIN: CSX2104, Laufleistung: 9.674 mls (original), Hubraum:4.735 ccm/V8, Getriebe: 4-Gang, Farbe: Guardsman Blue/Schwarz (Leder), Leistung: 271 PS, Papiere: Deutsche Fahrzeugpapiere (H-Zulassung)