always good stuff. reminds me of the once "missing shelby daytona CSX2287", albeit a tale with slightly more sordid details, now sitting in the simeone museum in PA.
(apologies for the wikipedia copy/paste below...i couldnt find a comprehensive link. but def worth researching for the full story, if youre into that kind of thing!)
"Five Shelby Daytona cars were constructed in Italy, one car, known to collectors as CSX2287, was manufactured in the United States. Ownership of the cars was recorded for five cars, however records for the sixth car were lost in the mid-1970s. For a long time car historians and collectors feared the sixth car was lost.
In 2001 the car was re-discovered in a rental storage unit in California.[1] The owner Donna O'Hara had committed suicide by burning herself alive.[2] The car had remained undiscovered for almost 30 years. Due to its estimated worth of over $4,000,000 USD the car was part of an extensive legal battle between her mother who sold the car to a collector in Pennsylvania, and a friend of Ms. O'Hara who was the recipient in her will of the contents of the storage unit. An earlier owner of the car appears to have been music producer Phil Spector who had been known to drive it on the streets of Los Angeles. Built for high-speed sprints, the cab became uncomfortably warm as the car engine heated up, among other problems. "It wasn't a street car; it was a race car", Shelby said. Still, Spector drove it on the streets, and legend is that Spector racked up so many speeding tickets, his lawyer advised him to get rid of the car before he lost his license.
CSX2287 has been mechanically reconditioned and is on display at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia. Jay Leno has been to the museum and video of him driving the car appears on his web site.
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Chris M.
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