Photos courtesy of Barrett-Jackson

Dubbed by auctioneers as “The Cobra to end all Cobras”, this 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 “Super Snake”, put up for auction by noted collector Ron Pratte, sold last Wednesday for a hefty $5.115 million. While that’s certainly a serious chunk of change, it actually still fell short of some expectations, and is also about $400,000 shy of what this same car sold for in 2007.

This Shelby Super Snake started life as one of only 23 CSX roadsters ever built, in 1965 it was shipped and invoiced to Ford Advanced Vehicles, England, as a 427 Cobra Competition roadster. It returned from Europe the following year and was transformed into one of only two Super Snake Cobras ever built by fitting it with twin superchargers which boosted the 427’s output to over 800 horsepower. As it did not have mufflers, a windshield, bumpers and other safety equipment required to be considered street legal, it was reclassified as a 427 Cobra Semi-Competition (SC), though some of these items were added later to make the car eligible for street use.

Today, it remains the only original Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake in existence, as the other one met its untimely demise when its second owner, Tony Maxey, drove it off a cliff and into the Pacific Ocean. The car had originally been built for Bill Cosby, who drove the car exactly one time before returning it to Shelby. As the auction description explains it, “Cosby’s album titled ‘200 MPH’ attests to the fact of why he drove it only once before returning it to Shelby American.” Guess he knew something Tony didn’t.

This remaining Super Snake retains its original body and aluminum Super Snake hood, and great lengths were made to find and restore its original Guardsman Blue shade of paint found underneath both a black and a Viking Blue pair of resprays. Our only gripe? The three speed automatic gearbox. Guess you can’t have it all, even at $5,000,000.