The McCluskey Coupes:

Of the commercial manufacturers of Daytona Coupe replicas, Michael McCluskey is arguably the finest. His coupes are so close to the originals they could be considered continuations. Mike started working on original Shelby Cobras back in 1969. "Actually my first customer was Carroll Shelby, the creator of the Cobra", says Mike and he has been restoring them ever since. To date he has restored over fifty original 289 and 427 Cobras. He also restored three of the original Daytona Coupes (CSX2299, 2300 and 2602). Through this experience, Mike learned every detail of these cars and produced accurate blueprints and templates. With these he set about producing hand-made replicas that were exactly like the originals in both materials and techniques. The first car he made (pictured below) was made for Carrol Shelby himself.

 

 

 

The first McCluskey Coupe produced for Shelby himself.

This, and the following two photos were recently taken by Stan Gidaszewski a fellow member of the Club Cobra forums. I can't thank Stan enough for preparing them and e-mailing me them for use here. If you think these are nice you should see them before I reduced their size!

Photographed and copyrighted by Stan Gidaszewski. Used with permission.

 

 Photographed and copyrighted by Stan Gidaszewski. Used with permission.

 Photographed and copyrighted by Stan Gidaszewski. Used with permission.

 

The second Coupe McCluskey produced was for famed Cobra Collector, Lynn Park, at a reported cost of $250, 000+. This car was used in a comparison with the Viper GTS Coupe in the May 1996 issue of Motor Trend. Following a test drive at Willow Springs Raceway, Mac DeMere wrote: "At wide-open throttle, the Webers sounded like Paul Bunyan's Shop-Vac, and the rumbling exhaust was like having the sound track from "The Memphis Belle" playing from equally Bunyan-esque speakers under my feet." Test data from the article shows the Coupe's incredible performance.

'97 Viper

Daytona Coupe

0-60 mph: 4.2 sec.

0-60 mph: 3.9 sec.

1/4 Mile: 12.7sec @ 111.0 mph

1/4 Mile: 12.1sec @ 120.1 mph

Braking 60-0: 133 ft.

Braking 60-0: 121 ft.

Lateral Acceleration: 0.97g

Lateral Acceleration: 1.10g

600 ft Slalom: 66.1 mph

Fuel Economy (mpg city/hwy): 12/21

600 ft Slalom: 68.6 mph

Fuel Economy (mpg @ race speed): 5 est.

© 1996 Petersen Publishing Co.

 

Currently, McCluskey Ltd. is building the 13th, 14th and 15th coupes in their limited series. To the best of my knowledge, the following photos are of some of the first 12 McCluskey Coupes:

 

 

 

Wayne Patrick's (#14) and Bo Cheadle's (#12) coupes at Willow Springs, 2000.

Photographer/Source unknown, anyone?

 

 

 

Another shot of Wayne Patrick's and and Bo Cheadle's coupes.

Photographer/Source unknown, anyone?

To see the full story on these coupes and their construction, check out the McCluskey Ltd. site here.

 

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