SA Racing Legends Build Cobras, GT40s & Daytona Coupés for Shelby’s Heritage Collection
Photo: Ford SA
An automotive company based in Gqeberha is keeping Fords motorsport racing history alive by constructing and customizing Shelby’s most revered and iconic car the Ford GT40 (MkI and MkII), Shelby Cobra and Daytona Coupé.
Founded in the mid-1980s by well known figures in South African motorsport,Jimmy Price and Peter Lindenberg, Hi-Tech Automotive specializes in the construction and customization of Shelby’s most revered and iconic cars with immaculate attention to detail and authenticity.
The company’s workmanship and reputation has resulted in demand from around the world with car collectors from the US and the UK being among the biggest markets.
Hi-Tech has built approximately 6,000 cars since opening its doors.
With all the vehicles produced by Hi-Tech Automotive leaving the factory as a rolling chassis without an engine or gearbox, it is up to Hi-Tech Automotive’s retail partners, such as Shelby South Africa, or Superformance in the US, to provide and install the engine and gearbox selected by the new owner for their Cobra, Daytona Coupé or GT40, making virtually every car unique and an expression of their personality.
Each of these special Shelby Heritage Cars can take up to 2 000 hours to complete and are hand-built to the customer’s own personal preferences to ensure a unique product that is tailor made for the driving enthusiast.
Shelby approved Cobras and Daytona Coupés are supplied with official Shelby chassis plates and the cars are registered on the Shelby registry, which authenticates them as meeting the strict global Shelby registry approvals process.
Doreen Mashinini, General Manager for Marketing at Ford South Africa said being able to carry on the Shelby legacy through these Heritage Cars is a fantastic achievement and pays tribute to Ford’s passion and success in motorsport.”
“We are proud that Jimmy Price and the entire Hi-Tech Automotive team are keeping Ford’s esteemed racing history alive by producing these iconic models for car collectors from all over the world. It’s also fantastic to have the team from Shelby South Africa, led by Ford racing aficionado Peter Lindenberg, involved with Hi-Tech in making these vehicles available to South African customers, delivering the highest quality product for current and future generations to enjoy.”
Many attribute Carroll Shelby’s entrepreneurial success to the Cobra, which fully embodied his attitudes and beliefs around big horsepower and simplified driving thrills. This formula provided the impetus for the Cobra Daytona Coupe which took aerodynamics into a more modern era, achieving higher top speeds which earned it countless victories and speed records in a wide range of competitive events.
Meanwhile, the Ford GT40 rose to fame by competing at Le Mans with its clean sweep of the podium in 1966 being among its most noteworthy achievements – which was subsequently immortalized in the Ford vs Ferrari motion picture. The GT40 went on to win the 1967, 1968 and 1969 editions of the Le Mans 24-hour race, cementing its status as arguably one of the most successful and iconic cars of all time.
