Among the performance upgrades to the familiar body were enlarged front and rear fenders to clear the wider wheels and tires. These were very recognizable six-spoke cast-alloy wheels. To accommodate for the large rear fenders, cut-back doors had to be fitted, which were also unique to this car.

The extreme tilt of the windshield can be seen as the FIA Roadster rolls away with an award at the Pebble Beach Concours. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)

The FIA Roadsters featured side-exhausts that ran under the sill. A hood-scoop was fitted on all five cars as were additional intakes under the nose to feed the oil-cooler. To help mechanics distinguish the cars during the race, each example was originally equipped with a different color stripe across the nose.

Underneath the slightly revised aluminum skin, the FIA Roadster was more closely related to the earlier competition Cobras. The basic steel tubular chassis with independent suspension and transverse leaf springs was carried over.

As before, the new works cars were powered by a Ford small-block V8. Fitted with four twin-choke Weber carburetors, the compact engine now produced close to 400 horsepower. This power was fed to the rear wheels through a sturdy Borg Warner four-speed gearbox. In order to save weight, none of the interior panels were trimmed but instead simply painted black.

Shelby American brought four FIA Roadsters to the season-opening 2000 km of Daytona 2000 race. Easily mistaken for standard competition Cobras, they were overshadowed by the equally new fixed-head machines, known henceforth as the Daytona Coupe.

Adjustments to the Cobra’s rear bodywork were required to allow for the 37-gallon fuel tank and the wider wheels and tires. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)

The Cobra coupe qualified on pole ahead of one of the Roadsters, but the race was very much a Ferrari affair due to reliability issues of the Cobras. The FIA Roadster soon after scored its first victory when Ken Miles won the USRRC GT race at Augusta ahead of Dave McDonald in a sister car.

The 1964 World Championship would remain a very closely disputed affair with the FIA Roadsters winning their class at the Targa Florio, Spa 500 km and Nÿrburgring 1000 km. The Coupe would go on to win the GT class at the all-important 24 Hours of Le Mans but in the end the steady run of the Ferrari 250 GTOs throughout the year saw the World Championship go to the Italian manufacturer.

Now running the Coupes exclusively, Shelby American made no mistake in 1965, winning both its class at Le Mans and the World Championship outright.

Having served Shelby well, the four surviving FIA Roadsters (one had been destroyed at Sebring) were sold to privateers at the end of 1964. Particularly the example campaigned by Alan Mann proved successful with John Whitmore winning the GT class at the Tourist Trophy and Bob Bondurant achieving a similar feat at the Rossfeld Hill Climb. Sadly, two of the cars were crashed heavily, one with fatal consequences, leaving just two complete examples in existence today.