Speaking of Phil Hill 
V12 Ferrari best sound ever to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewQaikxTUJs
I'd get a Daytona before a Cobra, I even ordered the build book from Factory 5 to see what was involved to build one. I'm spoiled as I'm lucky enough to live a few miles from this place and see them a couple of times a month when I go race there.
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That is a great video.... Shelby was finding it hard to beat the 250 GTO with the Cobra roadsters. Sure, the Cobra was considerably quicker in acceleration, but its aerodynamics limited top speed to just over 160 mph. In comparison, the 250 GTO could reach 185 mph on long straights (Mulsanne) and the banked portion of Daytona. Brock had the solution. Shelby wasn't especially interested, but finally agreed finance the development of a prototype, on a very tight budget.
When the prototype was tested at Riverside, it was 3 seconds a lap faster than the best time turned in by a roadster. Shelby decided to go to Daytona for the Continental (2000 km). During practice, Bob Hobert brought the car in and told Shelby, "this thing is fast! I can drive right past the GTOs".
Later that season, Phil Hill had stepped out of the Ferrari and into one of Shelby's Daytona coupes. Practicing at Spa, he found the car dangerously unstable through the track's many high speed bends, causing him to slow down where he should be going the fastest. This resulted in Hill qualifying second to Park's GTO. Bringing the Daytona into the pits after his qualifying run, he complained about the high speed handling. Phil Remington (Shelby's famous fabricator), took some sheet aluminum and cut out a rear spoiler, which he then pop riveted to car. When Hill went out for practice, he ran several laps. When he pulled in, he was beaming. "The car is perfect now, don't do anything else to it." Hill turned the fastest lap in the race, easily running away from the GTOs. However, tire trouble and some mechanical issues cost him much pit time and he finished 6th.
Ironically, Brock had designed a wing-like spoiler for the coupe, but Shelby refused to spend the money to fabricate it... So the Daytona was built without it. Many years later, Shelby admitted that he didn't have much faith in the "whiz kid" (Brock), and regretted not trusting Brock more up front. In retrospect, this lack of faith in Brock probably caused him to lose the championship to Ferrari by not locking in the championship when he could have.
Just keep in mind that Ferrari didn't win the 1964 GT championship in the traditional way. It was handed to Enzo by the FIA to PREVENT the Cobras from winning it. Heading into the last race of the season, Ferrari had a very small lead in the points. Monza was the location of the last race. Shelby's coupes had already been testing there and had shown far greater speed than the 250 GTOs. At the previous race at Reims, the Daytona qualified faster than some of the 250 LMs, and was much faster than the 250 GTOs. With Gurney back at the wheel, the Daytona would be very fast. This left Enzo in a panic. He petitioned the FIA to reclassify his 250 LM prototypes as GTs, so he could use them to combat the fast Daytona coupe and the two Cobra roadsters. If the FIA didn't do so, he threatened to withdraw his entire team and pressure all Ferrari privateers to do likewise. Rather than reclassify the prototypes as GTs, the FIA did one better. They simply cancelled the race.
Every team except Ferrari, was livid. Henry Ford II vowed to crush Ferrari. Shelby ramped up his GT program, now inundated with Ford money, building more Daytona coupes, with another 40 hp on tap. Shelby would be ready for 1965 with six Daytona coupes. Ferrari was, indeed, crushed in GT. Meanwhile, the GT-40 program took off. 1965 was a learning and sorting year. It was also Ferrari's last year to win at Le Mans. Ford won 1966-69, and Porsche then dominated with their 917s.
The morale of the story is well known now... If you pee in Shelby's Cheerios, you can expect an old fashioned Texas arse kicking....
Fast forward to 2015, and Ferrari can only be found in the GT category. Corvette is a leading challenger... However, Ford has a new bowl of Cheerios and a new GT car for 2016. I wonder if it's deja vu time in Modena?
