You Can Now Own an Official Replica of the Famed Racers in ‘Ford v Ferrari’

Full disclosure: I’m ordinarily not a movie goer. I don’t own a television either. My leisure time, such as it’s possible to eke out precious moments, is spent with friends, books, music, and automobiles. With the latter top of mind, it was natural to devote some of those free moments to watching Ford v. Ferrari when that film debuted in 2019. I’ve watched it three times, actually . . . and counting. I count myself fortunate to have known Carroll Shelby, to have met some other personalities represented in the film, and to know a few survivors who are left to tell the multifaceted tale.

Anyone with a pulse knows that Ford’s iconic hat-trick with three GT40s at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans was a never-to-be-repeated achievement in the history of motorsport. That epic feat was ripe for picking by Hollywood once most of the real characters in the story had passed from the scene, so that suspensions of disbelief—and the fantasies of Hollywood script writers—could take wing. I suspect that there are more than a few folks out there similarly captivated by a story that, as Carroll once told me, he’d never allow to be turned into a film unless Ken Miles was given his due.

Any film about racing isn’t just about the people. It’s also about the vehicles. And making a $100 million film requires a lot of them. That’s where Shelby Legendary Cars comes in—a division of Superformance, based in Irvine, Calif., and the distributor of licensed replicas of the Shelby Cobra, Daytona Coupe, and Ford GT40. In order to procure the models, the producers of Ford v Ferrari leased a stable of 29 exacting replicas of the original—and in some cases no longer extant—cars that made racing history. Of these, most were in static scenes, but seven were filmed in racing sequences: two Ford GT40s and five Shelby Cobra MKIIs. Building licensed factory-spec continuation originals since 1996, Superformance was perfectly poised to recreate the car-stars driven by Carroll Shelby and, importantly, raced by Ken Miles, Chris Amon, Lloyd Ruby, Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren, and Dave MacDonald during the era represented in the film.

One of those racers, Dave MacDonald, was born in 1936, and began racing when he was only 20 years old. In just four years—from 1956 to 1959—he won nearly 100 trophies, drag racing behind the wheel of Corvettes. His first road race was on Valentine’s Day in 1960 at Willow Springs, where he out-dueled a loaded field of drivers (including future Shelby teammate Bob Bondurant) to score his first victory. Between 1960 and 1962, he ran a total of 69 Corvette races and won 31 times. In 2014, MacDonald was posthumously inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame.

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By June of 1962, Corvette’s “godfather,” Zora Arkus-Duntov, had handpicked MacDonald and fellow Corvette Hall of Famer Dick Thompson to do the shakedown testing for the all-new 1963 Stingray, America’s most iconic sports car. At the start of the 1963 season, Carroll Shelby, no doubt impressed with MacDonald’s success, hired the young driver. Piloting a Cobra in his first outing at Riverside International Raceway, MacDonald took first place two days in a row, beating teammate Ken Miles, who came in second both days in another Cobra.

At the LA Times Grand Prix, in October of 1963, in front of a U.S. record of 82,000 fans at Riverside, MacDonald ran Shelby King Cobra CM/1/63 past a star-studded international field to win the richest sports car race in the world at the time. His payday was seven times greater than what Formula 1 driver Graham Hill received for winning the Monaco Grand Prix the same year.

A versatile racer, MacDonald drove a Mercury in NASCAR and, fatefully, died at the Indianapolis 500 in 1964 behind the wheel of Mickey Thompson’s radical—and diabolical—rear-engined racer. MacDonald was 27 years old and, in his short career, had competed in a total of 118 races, with 52 victories and 75 top-three finishes.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the late racer’s son, Rich MacDonald, handles sales at Shelby Legendary Cars. He managed the acquisition by Fox/Disney of the examples used in the film, and was present on the sets throughout the four-month film schedule. One of those venues was Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, Calif., where the track replicated the 1960s-era Southern California racing venue (it’s not much different today).

After the project’s completion, Rich personally sold the seven film cars within 72 hours. No doubt, the buyers had their hands up for a while. Aaron Shelby, Carroll’s grandson, bought the blue Cobra, and Ken Miles’ son Peter bought the white Cobra driven by actor Christian Bale, who played his father in the movie. That car was the workhorse of the film, and three identical cars were supplied, the other two acquired by Randall Shelby (Carroll’s grandson), and stunt driver Tony Hunt, who assumed Christian Bale’s role on the track. Rich MacDonald purchased CSX8102, the replica of his father’s red Cobra, as a fitting tribute. “When I saw CSX8102 going round and round the track representing my father’s Cobra in the movie, I decided I’d purchase it once it returned from filming.”

Early in our conversation, MacDonald observed, “Nobody wants a car from a horrible movie.” The blockbuster grossed nearly a quarter-of-a-billion dollars worldwide, while illuminating the legacies of Shelby, Miles, MacDonald, and their cohorts to an audience that, for the mot pat, wasn’t yet born when the original Ford GT40 trio crossed the finish line. “These cars are the ultimate movie souvenir,” says Gary Patterson, president of Shelby American. But more than trophies, they’re real sports cars.

Those vehicles also launched the Superformance Cinema Series, exacting replicas of the originals that ran in the 1960s—limited to 100 total examples each of the Shelby Cobra roadsters, Shelby Daytona Coupes, and Ford GT40s seen in the film. Each car is based on a vehicle used in the movie, and comes with complete documentation. Three Cobra MKII versions will bear CSX8100-8199 serial numbers, and include:

• The blue 1962 “Carroll Shelby” edition based on CSX2000, the first Cobra built, and driven by Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby in the film.

• The white 1963 “Ken Miles” edition. This model will include a wrench engraved with Carroll Shelby’s autograph, and a spare cracked windshield replicating the one broken by the flying wrench thrown by Ken Miles, as seen in the movie.

• The red 1963 “Dave MacDonald” edition.

These Shelby Cobra MKII roadsters have a body in fiberglass and the classic slab-sided style of the original “small block” cars, before the 427 ci monsters—with their ferocious flares and side pipes—came on the scene. Although the cars have a starting price of $98,995, the engine and transmission are not included. That selection, along with the cost of purchase and installation of the drive train, are the responsibility of the customer, who will likely opt for a period-correct Ford 289 ci V-8 crate engine, or a larger, modern 302 ci mill. Weighing about 2,200 pounds, and with well over 350 hp, the Cobra is a real rocket ship, and as fun to drive as Carroll Shelby’s character in the movie makes it out to be.

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