Imagine, for a second, that Leonardo daVinci's had the chance to repaint the Mona Lisa 40 years after the event. Maybe he'd change the light, or perhaps he'd have cheered up the model and the most famous smirk on earth would now be a smile. The simple fact is that with the benefit of hindsight, new materials, and a fresh chance, he could have done a better job. Even a masterpiece has room for improvement.
The AC Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe was the automotive designer Peter Brock's best work. Now, 40 years after the original blew Ferrari off the road in the GT Championship, Brock got a second chance with the Superformance Brock Daytona Coupe. And while it may look like the classic Coupe on the outside, the similarity really is barely skin deep. This is a modern supercar with power figures that compare to the likes of the Porsche Carrera GT and Ferrari Enzo, but at a fraction of the price, and it comes with a ready-made heritage.
Anyone doubting its current racing credentials can check the results of the 2004 Run & Gun event, in which a Superformance Coupe took nearly every top spot in all three classes of drag racing, autocross, and road racing. There have been a number of replicas on the replicar market over the years, but Jim Price, the man behind the factory that builds the awe-inspiring Noble body in South Africa, was determined to bring the Daytona back to full strength.
But there was one big condition: if Brock wouldn't design it, the project would go no further. He took some persuading after their initial conversation in 1996, but when Price agreed to take on Bob Negstadt-the designer of the Cobra 427 chassis-Brock shook hands on the deal. As is often the case with true artists, neither Brock nor Negstadt were happy with their most famous creations, constrained as they were by time and budgets.
The Daytona Coupe also had to be built on the 427 chassis that, in Brock's opinion, was the wrong size; it even had a leaf-spring suspension-well out of date, even in the '60s. The Coupe won despite of, not because of, its mechanical underpinnings. Given a second chance, they gladly went back to the drawing board.
Over the years, engines have been generally downsized as we've figured out how to drag more horses from smaller capacities. But lift the long composite-plastic hood on the Coupe and an epic 6.6L, 510bhp Roush Racing-prepared Ford V-8 crowned with a massive carburetor stares right back. This unit has 130 bhp more than the fearsome racing Cobra, but the car has real seats, an interior, and a solid tubular steel chassis, so it has 2,866 pounds to send squirming down the road.
The engine is similar to a NASCAR engine, only much bigger, and its guttural roar on start-up startles the surrounding trees. With the composite hood up you can actually see the engine gulping jets of fuel, and it's an awe-inspiring sight indeed.
The Coupe seen here had false side exits for the exhaust and a silencer box underneath, but some customers go for the full bore effect and the burst eardrums. Shelby and Ford used to believe that any problem could be solved with more horsepower, and while Brock believes in a more holistic approach, he certainly agrees with the concept.
In truth the V-8 doesn't work too well at driving-around-town speeds. Below 2,000 rpm it splutters as it desperately drinks fuel, and the gas pedal and engine feel like entirely separate entities, as the big V-8 is slow to react. Above 2,000, when this car's engine starts to breathe freely, the Superformance takes off with all the violence of a great white shark in full-attack mode.