Motoring legend Carroll Shelby's personal Cobra 427 Super Snake has been announced as the early highlight of Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale auction in January 2015.

The most desirable Shelby in the world

The auction house has just revealed that it has been chosen to auction the Ron Pratte Collection at the annual sales in Arizona.

Pratte's collection is home to some of the most important cars and automobilia available to collectors, including Shelby's Cobra - the current record holder for a Shelby sold at auction ($5.5m in 2007) and previously holder of the auction record for a vehicle made in the US.

The record for a US car at auction is held by a 1968 GT40 Gulf/Mirage that starred in Steve McQueen's Le Mans film at $11m. It could be knocked from the top spot in August, however, as the Ford GT40 Roadster Prototype comes to Pebble Beach.

The Shelby at Scottsdale is the only 1966 Cobra Super Snake in existence, with just two made by Carroll Shelby using AC Cobra 427 competition roadsters. The second was given to comedian and well-known car collector Bill Cosby, who was unable to control it and returned it to Shelby some time after.

Shelby later sold Cosby's car to a customer in San Francisco, who also struggled to keep it on the road and eventually drove it off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean.

"When I built this dual supercharged 427 Cobra in 1966, I wanted it to be the fastest, meanest car on the road," Shelby (1923-2012) commented before the 2007 auction. "Forty years later, it will still kick the tail of just about anything in the world. It's the fastest street legal Cobra I've ever owned."

Boasting 800 horsepower, produced by a 427 cubic-inch V8 engine with two Paxton superchargers, the Super Snake is capable of 0-60mph in only three seconds.

Just two examples of the Pontiac concept car were ever made, with Pratte owning one of them

While the remainder of the collection remains a mystery for now, it is known to house one of only two Pontiac Bonneville Specials ever made - enough to keep collectors salivating until the new year.

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