Luxist Drives the Superformance Shelby Daytona Coupe

Even though it's only got two major curves -- the hood and the cockpit -- we think the Daytona Coupe is a fantastically beautiful car. It is a loose, rather than exact, copy of the race car; an interpretation, if you will, but designed, like the race car, by Peter Brock and Bob Negstad. The founder of Superformance, Jim Price, wanted a street version of the race car, so to make it more palatable it was stretched by three inches and given slightly larger dimensions overall.



Unlike the Superformance GT40's steel monocoque, this car's skeleton is a steel tubular space frame wrapped in a glass composite body. The suspension is independent, unequal A-arms front and rear -- also designed by the original minds, who did the original Cobra and GT40 as well -- and employs Bilstein coilovers and H&R springs.

As usual, you can order the engine you want that's based on Ford's Windsor 351 block -- Superformance delivers a rolling chassis -- but the one we'd sample came with a Roush V8 tuned to about 500 hp, mated to Superformance's standard setup of aluminum crossflow radiator and oil cooler with dual electric fans, and braided lines.



Chris Rock once said of Russell Crowe that he could channel a man from any era -- if the movie took place three weeks ago, Crowe could play a man from three weeks ago. We know the original car it's based on actually raced in the sixties, but the Daytona Coupe is all about the seventies to us (perhaps because that original car was ahead of its time?). In fact, it is a Stargate straight to open-necked rayon shirts, hairy chests, and Born to be Wild (another sixties reference that we're pulling into the seventies).

Open the door and, if you want, remove the 14-inch, 3-spoke steering wheel and drop in. The cabin is fitted, cozy, but not at all uncomfortable or even claustrophobic. There's a little more room in this car than the GT40, but there's less glass to let light in so it feels more intimate even though more spacious. It's also got one more inch of ground clearance, which feels like an entire foot.

The center console contains a suite of beautiful Stewart Warner gauges, only a couple of which you'll need to regularly pay attention to. The toggles underneath control ancillaries like the wipers, fans, and headlights. Directly in front of you are just two dials: the 8,000 rpm tach and the speedometer. The wide center tunnel supports the crooked, 6-speed gearshift and an upright parking brake. It is a simple, crystal clear, and gorgeous cabin. Interestingly, the windows are manual, but the car comes with remote door locks and an immobilizer.



Put the little metal key in its slot, turn, and usher life into the motor. The sound is full, compelling, not overbearing. You can have your choice of exhaust: working sidepipes or a rear-exit setup, and while the Daytona's outcry is on the loud side, it is not as tweaked out as the Shelby Super Snake nor the Roush 427R, and nowhere near as hackle-raising as the Eleanor Mustang.

The Daytona uses a Tremec T56 6-speed transmission, which has seen service in everything from the Dodge Ram to the Aston Martin Vanquish. It's a fine shifter with positive action and comfortable throws, which came in handy because the Daytona Coupe is banging on the door of Mr. Go Fast. The Daytona weighs about 700 pounds more than the GT40, and you notice it if you drive the two back-to-back, but that still makes it just 2,910 pounds which is about the same weight as a Volkswagen Golf. Only the Daytona, compared to the Golf, has a far superior suspension, about 250 more horsepower and 300 lb-ft of additional torque, and Dunlops out back that are 10 inches wide on 18-inch wheels.

That's a lot of power in a well sorted chassis on a lot of rubber. That gets the white stripes to highway speeds in less than four seconds, on to a 200-mile-per-hour top speed.



But we didn't really give the car a beating, neither in straight line runs nor through turns. To be quite honest, we didn't want to. It felt so damn good to just relax and enjoy the car, to leave a light with a long, powerful pull through first, like a deep draw from a Marlboro. It felt so damn good just to cruise, frankly, knowing how good we looked behind the wheel, imagining what we'd be saying to Roller Girl were she lucky enough to be riding with us, and wondering where we could get a chocolate leather jacket with fringed sleeves at that time of the afternoon.

Sure, we worked in a few downshift-and-peel-away shenanigans to keep the blood really flowing. But if Superformance owner Lance Stander hadn't been in the car with us we'd still be driving, probably hitting Halifax right about now. We never wanted to get out of that car.

It's a GT that is grand, grand, grand.



We concede, however, that the Daytona Coupe might not be for everyone, in the same way Ron Jeremy isn't for everyone. Figure the entire car – rolling chassis, engine and transmission, and suspension – will put you back $90 grand, well, there are a lot of other cars you can get for that money. But if you're the kind of person who's ready to put it all out there, this is the kind of car that takes its place at the front of the line. Once you take it home, all you need then is a moustache.