Legendary racing Cobra roadster debuting at Goodwood Revival Sale

Goodwood, UK – Bonhams|Cars will present to the market one of most raced and best-known Anglo-American Cobra roadsters in historic racing history at The Goodwood Revival Sale on Saturday, September 13. The 1963/’65 Cobra Hardtop Coupe Roaster was based upon the original chassis frame of the very first Carroll Shelby-conceived Cobra ever to contest the Le Mans 24-Hour race, 62 years ago.

This AC Cobra – UK road registered ’13 COB’ – is renowned as being the ex-Martin Colvill car, campaigned for so long by Martin under the banner of their Bell & Colvill sports car dealership in Horsley, in the south English county of Surrey. Through the late 1970s/1980s, driven by Colvill, ’13 COB’ completed over 100 races. In them it scored 12 outright victories plus 44 class wins and won the Historic Sports Car Club Classic Sportscar Class A Championship in 1978, 1980, and 1981. The car also amassed the most points in the 1981 and 1985 Aston Martin Owners Club’s Inter-Marque Challenge/Championship, and with Martin Colvill at the wheel it set class lap records at Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Oulton Park and Mallory Park. 

Although this potent Cobra was not completed until early 1966, it is now proven that its chassis – serial ‘CS 2131’ – began life as AC Cars Ltd’s works entry in the 1963 Le Mans 24-Hours. At that time, it underpinned Cobra ’39 PH’ which, driven by 1957 24-Hour race winner Ninian Sanderson and Peter Bolton, would finish seventh overall and first in class. 

Then acquired direct from AC Cars by John Willment Automobiles, 39 PH was successfully campaigned, most often driven by Jack Sears, at Goodwood, Oulton Park and Aintree. However, in practice for the May 1964, Nürburgring 1,000Kms race, Australian co-driver Frank Gardner crashed it at well over 100mph, distorting the chassis frame’s front chassis tower. To expedite repair in time to fulfil its Ilford Films Trophy race entry at Brands Hatch just six weeks later, 39 PH’s original chassis was replaced with a new, later 1964-made frame. Its damaged chassis was subsequently repaired and retained until sold by Willment as a rebuilt rolling chassis plus new body, on the team’s closure in early 1966.  

Bought by the Duke of Hamilton and passing through four subsequent owners before Martin Colvill’s acquisition in 1975, chassis ‘CS 2131A’, as it was later designated by the AC Owners Club in recognition of its chassis’ origin, was acquired by the present vendor in 2005.  

Subsequently campaigned in major historic race events, including the Le Mans Classic and Modena Cento Ore, ’13 COB’ has also run regularly in such renowned Goodwood events as the Shelby Cup, Revival Meeting’s RAC TT Celebration and the Members’ Meeting’s Graham Hill Trophy races.  There it has consistently finished in the top ten, driven in more recent years by Anthony Reid, Nick Minassian and Murray Shepherd with Shepherd finishing fourth overall in 2024’s Graham Hill Trophy. In February 2019, ‘COB 13’ was displayed in the Royal Automobile Club’s Rotunda in Pall Mall, London - the first Cobra ever to be so honoured. Overall, ’13 COB’ remains one of the most original surviving competition AC Cobras, retaining not only its original chassis but also its original body throughout its life and competition career. Indeed ’13 COB’ remains a genuinely historic racing artefact. It has been, and continues to be, fastidiously maintained to the correct FIA homologation specification and FIA Appendix K regulations, without recourse to non-period modifications. 

To be offered ‘On the button’ and eminently eligible for the most prestigious of events ’13 COB’ is one of the best-known and much respected Cobras ever campaigned in earnest.  

Mark Osborne, Vice President, Global Head of Motorsport at Bonhams|Cars, said: “I recall as a boy (Canon AE-1 in hand) seeing the Bell & Colvill Cobra in action. It’s been a part of British motor racing lore for as long as I can remember. A recent test at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex revived those rip-roaring memories. To be a part of this famous racing car’s illustrious history is a thrill and an honor – and one that my younger self would have been giddy even to think of.” 

Sale: Goodwood Revival 
Location: Chichester 
Date: 13 September

About Bonhams|Cars - Bonhams|Cars uniquely offers a choice of live, online and private platforms for buying and selling collector cars—platforms characterized by levels of trust, reliability, and transparency born of over three decades of experience as the premier automotive auction house. Through prestigious live auctions around the world, 24/7 online auctions, and our Private Sales service, Bonhams|Cars makes it simple for buyers and sellers to find the platform that best meets their needs.  

Bonhams|Cars hosts 17 live auctions annually, participates in all the significant concours around the world, and presents unique selling opportunities at international events such as the FORMULA 1® CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX, Goodwood Motorsport Events in the UK, The Quail on the Monterey Peninsula in California, and The Zoute Concours d'Elégance in Belgium. At Bonhams|Cars Online, we provide our clients with fast, expert, accurate and agile single-car auctions, 24/7. With dedicated motoring departments in London, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Brussels and beyond, Bonhams|Cars has a world-class team with expertise in all divisions, from vintage cars to racing motorsport and automobilia to motorcycles.  

For more information, please visit BonhamsCars.com.  

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