1965 Shelby Cobra-Replica

This 1965 Backdraft Racing RT4 Roadster presents in Sebring Orange with Granite Crystal stripes over a Black leather interior with standard trim, showing 195 miles from new, accompanied by its complete build documentation including original Backdraft Motorsports and Speed Fanatix invoices. Build No. 2655 is one of the more extensively optioned Backdraft roadsters to come to market a comprehensively specified, professionally completed continuation Cobra built to a total investment well in excess of the base chassis price, with every major performance, safety, and convenience upgrade documented from new.
Power comes from a Roush 427 IR V8 a crate engine carrying a retail value of $42,000 in its own right paired with a Tremec TKX five-speed manual transmission and rear-wheel drive. The Roush 427 IR is a fuel-injected, modern-technology interpretation of the big-block displacement that defines the original Cobras performance legacy, delivering output in the range of 565 horsepower with the reliability and drivability characteristics of a current-generation engine. The combination of Roush displacement, Tremec close-ratio gearbox, and the Backdraft chassiss lightweight aluminum construction produces a power-to-weight relationship that the original CSX cars could only approximate with far less refinement.
The Backdraft RT4 chassis is the most directly Cobra-faithful of the roadsters currently produced a tubular steel spaceframe clothed in aluminum coachwork that captures the proportions and visual drama of the original Carroll Shelby-commissioned body without the dimensional and engineering compromises of earlier tribute builders. Backdraft Racings South African production facility has refined the RT4 platform over successive build generations into a vehicle that satisfies both the visual expectation of the Cobra silhouette and the functional demands of a car intended to be driven with commitment. The Sebring Orange with Granite Crystal stripes is among the more period-evocative color combinations available a palette that references the competition history of the original cars without the predictability of the more commonly specified finishes.
The build specification documented on the Backdraft invoice represents a thorough, considered approach to the RT4s option list: Wilwood big brake package, power steering rack and engine kit, ceramic coated headers, upgraded aluminum radiator with shroud and fan, upgraded internal-pump aluminum fuel tank, Continental rear 335 tires on period-appropriate wheels, colored grey brake calipers, remote brake and clutch reservoirs, oil cooler, and paint protection film across the front nose and rear fenders. Safety provisions include a passenger roll bar, Sabelt CAM lock seatbelts for both occupants, and a chrome fire extinguisher. Convenience appointments extend to a glove box, heated seats, passenger seat slider, and Raydot drivers mirror a specification breadth that reflects a builders intent to produce a complete, usable machine rather than a stripped track-day proposition.
At 195 miles from new, this example has been run in and confirmed functional without accumulating the exposure that compromises freshly built roadsters of this type. The presence of both original invoices Backdraft Motorsports for the chassis, body, and options, and Speed Fanatix for the Roush 427 IR engine installation provides an unusually complete accounting of the builds provenance and component specification. For a buyer seeking a fully documented, extensively optioned Backdraft RT4 with one of the most desirable available engine packages, this example represents a straightforward opportunity that the market for well-specified continuation Cobras will recognize immediately.