[1ntCobra]

After a close contest with Ferrari in 1964, the plan was to race the 427 cobra in 1965 including a coupe, but when not enough 427 cobras were completed at the time of the FIA inspection, that plan fell apart.

However, with the Ferrari factory deciding to sort of sit out the GT class for 1965, I think Ford realized that the Daytona Coupes could just sort of show up and win the GT class and thus Alan Mann was hired to run the Daytonas and FIAs for 1965, while Shelby concentrated on the Prototype class with the GT-40s.

Perhaps for 1966, there was going to be some real competition in the GT class again and the Daytonas were not going to be competitive anymore?