Mustang Cobra shared by Paul Newman at Daytona sells for US$935,000 at Mecum Nashville

What happened

A 1995 Ford Mustang Cobra race car shared by Paul Newman at the Rolex 24 at Daytona sold for US$935,000 at Mecum's inaugural Nashville auction, according to Mecum. The sale ran from 22 to 26 September 2026 at Nashville Superspeedway.

The sources reviewed did not say whether the figure includes buyer's premium (the auction house's fee on top of the hammer price).

The car, campaigned as Nobody's Fool, was shared by Newman, Tommy Kendall, Mark Martin and Michael Brockman in the 1995 event. Motorious reported in June that it took the GTS-1 class win and finished third overall. It has a naturally aspirated 6.0-litre Roush-built V8 and a five-speed manual gearbox.

Motorious also reported that Mecum had not published a pre-sale estimate at that point.

Mecum ranked the Mustang second in its top 10 for the sale. Only a 2024 Ferrari 812 Competizione Aperta, at US$4,050,000, ranked higher, and Mecum said that car sold after the auction through its Bid Goes On department.

Modern Car Collector called the Mustang the top sale of the week, a description that differs from Mecum's list. It said an Aston Martin DB5 sold for US$605,000, which is US$330,000 less than the Mustang.

Modern Car Collector pointed to provenance (documented ownership history) to explain the gap. The Mustang came to the sale from the Roush Automotive Collection, and the publication said questions of history are far easier to answer when the builder has owned the car all along.

The same article said Aston Martin built more than a thousand DB5s across coupe, convertible and shooting-brake form, and that this gives the model a deep base of comparable sales. It argued that when a car's only true comparable is itself, the bidders who want it have one chance.

Mecum said the Nashville sale produced more than US$73m in sales with a 75 per cent sell-through rate (the share of lots that sold). It said the figures were expected to increase in the coming days.