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'67 or '69?My brother had a Blue '67 just like that,been awhile

that one was the 68.
67 body is the same
69 are just a bit different on the back quarters

You know, I know it's technically superior to the Cobra 427. Aerodynamics and speed are improved with the hardtop. But it'll never be as sexy.

You know it's not really related to the 427 Cobra, right?  That Cobra was a whole different animal--different frame, different body, different suspension--from the original 289 version, which is what the Daytona was under the skin.
Convertibles are generally sexier than coupes--but I think the Daytona is very sexy, sexier than a 289 Cobra.
Did you read the whole article?
Only six of them were made, and they were just an afterthought once Shelby got into developing the Ford GT40.  So a handful of guys, operating on a shoestring budget, go and beat the mighty Ferrari GTO and win the World Championship of Makes for America.  For the first time ever.  It's an incredible story.
Too bad it's been overshadowed by the success that the GT40 eventually had.

Ferrari hasn't won Le Mans since the four-straight wins by the GT40.

I love the conclusion to the Road & Track story:

We can be brilliant, the human race. But also very stupid. I wouldn't trade the safety advancements of a modern competition car for all the Nomex in Europe, but there is something here that we've lost. Undeniably walked away from. Something sublime and raw that we're never getting back.


And I'd be lying if I didn't say that there is a tiny, embarrassingly Luddite part of me that wishes everything since had never happened. That this had been the final stroke of an art form, race cars never evolving further. And that they still ran Le Mans and old Spa and old Reims with loud things that were graceful and brutal and risky and thin. That it was possible for a handful of clever guys in a garage in Southern California to throw caution aside, take on that world, and win.

We got a moment, though. An instant of that light, from a bunch of hometown upstarts. Ours.

I know someone already posted the same model, but this is my all time favorite sports car. If I ever hit a big lottery, I will have at least one of these in my garage. 

Sexiest Car EVER! 

never been a fan of British sports cars

I have driven a Jag a few times - big heavy and slow

Some would say a sports car can only have two seats, an independent rear suspension, and a few other tidbits.  Here is a photo of classic Brit sports cars.

If you really want to get technical, per racing definition from 50 years ago, a sports car has no top.  An enclosed car is, at most, a GT.  An enclosed car with a back seat is a sedan.

I once had a TR3A like this one.


This is a '60; mine was a '59.  I can't tell the difference between the two years--there may not have been any.  About 1/3 of mine was painted primer rather than black, and I had bolt-on stamped steel wheels rather than wires w/knock-off hubs.  It was freezing cold in the winter and overheated in the summer, and I never got it straightened out.  The overdrive didn't work.

I drove it from Fort Hood, TX, to Fort Rucker, AL, for the Apache course.  It overheated several times, so I made terrible time.  It started running on two cylinders at night in Mississippi.  I stopped at a truck stop and used some sort of wire to repair the carburetor linkage, and got back on the road.  I arrived at Rucker at about 8:00 a.m., and class had started at 7:30.  I checked in at the BOQ, changed into uniform, drove it to the right building, and started class.
Driving back to Fort Hood, I got into a cold, driving rain in Louisiana.  First time I had driven it in a serious rainstorm.  Water was coming in everywhere, including up through the floor.  And, of course, the heater didn't work.  I wrapped a blanket around my legs and kept driving.  I stopped at my sister's place in Dallas about 2 a.m. starting to suffer from hypothermia.
Oh, but it was great for short trips on pleasant spring or fall days!

Oh, I forgot about George Lucas, the Prince of Darkness.  British cars back then all had Lucas electrical systems.

When I got that car, a T-shirt came with it.  It had a cartoon of a leaking refrigerator and asked: "Why do British drink warm beer?"

The answer: "Lucas refrigerators."

My working definition was:

two seats only
convertible as an option
independent rear suspension
manual transmission option at least, this one has disappeared of late of course

The Brit versions like the MG were under powered with poor brakes and mediocre handling even for the time aside from the Jag and perhaps the TR6.

That's an awesome Triumph, C-Dubb!  Gorgeous.

And yeah, the definition of a "sportscar" is kind of squirrely, and has certainly become widened over the decades.  These days people seem to define it loosely as "a car capable of sportscar style driving." Or something.  

Utee:

In my mind, mine was going to be awesome.  I was going to clean 30 years of nicks and dings on the body and paint it British Racing Green.  The interior and top were going to be tan, of course.  In fact, I had had already replaced the original (leaky) top with a tan one.

Just like I want baseball britches to stop about mid-calf (because that's the way The Mick wore his) and I expect college football unis to look the way they did ca. 1970, I'm stuck in my head with the definitions I learned when I got my first sports car, a Datsun 2000.  Sports cars are roadsters, coupes can just be GT cars.  If I had an original Datsun 240Z, I might love it, I would know that it was a better-performing car than my 2000, but I woudn't think of it as a sports car.  It would be a GT.

And my Boss 302 Mustang is certainly not a sports car.

Here's a very nice Datsun 2000.  Mine had standard steel wheels, not the aftermarket alloys that this one has.  Other than that, this is about what mine looked like.  As this owner has done, I removed the bumper guards.  This is a '69, as mine was.  It has a taller windscreen and a better-done interior than the '68s.

I drove mine to my first OU-Texas game in 1972.