Carroll Shelby's famous 1966 Shelby Cobra Super Snake has seen $5.1m to lead Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale auction, held January 10-18.
 Shelby made two Super Snakes, giving one to actor Bill Cosby before it was promptly handed back as being too terrifying to drive |
The sale focused on Ron Pratte's legendary collection,which contains some of the world's most desirable American cars. The auction brought in more than $130m in vehicle sales, with $6.5m in automobilia, while the Pratte collection alone made $40.4m.
The Shelby Cobra Super Snake is an AC Cobra 427 competition roadster which was specially built and adapted for legendary racer and designer Carroll Shelby, adding superchargers as well as a host of accessories to make the car street legal but incredibly powerful.
It was kept by Shelby himself as his personal car, and bought by Pratte at auction in 2007 for $5m - the record for a US-made vehicle at the time.
Also selling from Pratte's collection was the 1950 GM Futurliner, an enormous tour bus made for the GM Parade of Progress - a travelling exhibition around the US and Canada to showcase GM's innovations in the post-war period. It made $4m, which was the price Pratte paid back in 2006. Proceeds went to a charity for military members and their families.
With rare concept cars the focus of Pratte's collection, the third highest bids of the sale were seen by the 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Motorama Concept Car at $1.3m. An experimental project, it features an all plexi-glass canopy with gull-wing panels on a fibreglass body, and is one of just two ever built.
See the top 10 sales of the Barrett-Jackson auction:
• 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake - $5.1 million
• 1950 GM Futurliner Parade of Progress Tour Bus - $4 million
• 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special Motorama Concept Car - $3.3 million
• 1949 Talbot-Lago T-26 Grand Sport Franay - $1.65 million
• 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 Roadster - $1.6 million
• 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing - $1.1 million
• 1937 Mercedes-Benz 320B Cabriolet - $1.0 million
• 1936 Delahaye "Whatthehaye" Street-Rod - $671,000
• 1991 Ferrari F40 - $643,500
• 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300S Cabriolet - $643,500
