Cobra 427 – CSX3278 | radicalmag classics

The Untouched

In the summer of 1966, Herb Pell ordered a Cobra from Tasca Ford of East Providence, Rhode Island. Tasca ordered it from Shelby American, transferred the $6,145 due for CSX3278, but Herb Pell then changed his mind about the vehicle, because he had wanted a green Cobra from the outset, not a red one. So Tasca sold the 427 on to Tennessee – and that’s where the trail of CSX3278 then goes cold. At some point, the car came into the hands of well-known collector Allan Craig Shelton, who apparently also drove the Cobra a lot, but put it in a barn in 1991 after his trusted mechanic was killed in a motorcycle accident and no one could be found to keep the car in Shelton’s desired condition. It was only in 2017 that CSX3278 was pulled out of the barn and auctioned off by Gooding & Co. as a dusty ‘barn find’ for $1,045,000 at Amelia Island in 2018. In the meantime, the evil thing has probably been washed once, but never moved, as there are still 18,036 miles on the odometer.