What is a car worth? Could any car really be worth $5.5 million? One was - and I asked Jody Victorto tell us about it.
Jody Victor: Several weeks ago at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, the sale of the 1966 Shelby Cobra "Super Snake" brought a packed house to its feet after a pair of bidders drove the price up. The iconic vehicle sold for $5.5 million at auction, a record for an American car.
The Shelby Cobra was the 800-horsepower personal car of racing veteran Carroll Shelby, 84, who created the Cobra in the '60s using Ford engines and a British sport car chassis. He built the Super Snake with twin superchargers on a 427 cubic inch V-8 and drove it for years. He says it would do 60 (mph) in just over three seconds - that's fast.
The winning bidder was car collector Ron Pratt of suburban Chandler. Last year, he paid $4.32 million for the Futureliner, one of 12 futuristic buses used for shows in the '40s and '50s by General Motors.
Barrett-Jackson said the $5.5 million price tag for the Cobra was not an overall world record car price; others have sold at auction for more than $11 million. But this was a world record sale price for an American car.
Thanks, Jody!