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Ok, I did find it. In Shelby American magazine, #56, in The MAIL SAAC, a member asks, how many of each type of ORIGINAL Shelby car, by year and type are accounted for or known to exist.

So here are the stats as of that isssue....

GT40 Built 133 Found 127 Pct 95.5%
260-289 Cobra Built 655 Found 581 Pct 88.7%
427 Cobra Built 348 Found 309 Pct 88.8%
1965 GT350 Built 525 Found 393 Pct 74.8%
1965 GT350R Built 37 Found 30 Pct 81.1%

(Note each year of Mustang was given but frankly I am not of the mind to type all that crap so if you want to see the latter day mustang stats, go out and get that issue.)

So of the 1003 original cobras 890 were known to exist and data on them was secured. Of those, an earilier article stated 5 of those were STOLEN and their current status or whereabouts were unknown.

So there are 113 Cobras not accounted for. Of those one can surmise that many are scraped and are gone. Some were donor cars after wrecks, etc and no longer exist as a car but are now a "Bitza". (BITZA = a Cobra that was restored with a little bits of this car and a little bits of that car).

Of course the other possiblility is that there are cars out there in existance yet Unfound or unregistered by the SAAC. Hummm... a tastey possibility eh?

But in any case, at the time of publishing SA #56 the magic FOUND number was 890 out of 1003.

Isn't it amazing that the Cobra legend was for the most part based on a total of 1003 real cars?

(Note: AC's COX/COBnnnn and Autokrafts COX/COBnnnn cars are not counted in the above figures nor are the current day Shelby American continuation/replica cars.)

It is also of interest that the number of AC Bristols has diminished during the last 30 years, giving rise to speculation about them appearing as a 289 Cobra or being use as a BITZA donor.

Cheers