Geez, I almost feel bad now. Usually, I pay closer attention to the Barrett-Jackson auction, it's become something of a mid-winter ritual to me, and I missed the coverage of this one. Much has changed in collector cars over the years, and I can think of times where a car like this, with it's history ("provenance," we car guys like to call it,) and desirability probably would have gotten even closer to $10 mil. Yow. Score one, at least, for Cobra freaks like myself, and finally one-upping the Corvette guys, and all the money that has changed hands over the years for Corvette Grand Sports, GM's few-of-a-kind racing specials, built to a similar purpose, in the same time frame, and always having fetched obnoxiously big money at auction. Deusenbergs and the pre-war "couture" coach-built specials I can actually see going for the money they do, but then again, my attachment with them is usually more about them just being gorgeous.
As far as the job scene, I'm further along on the way here, having now been through fingerprinting, TB (yes, Tuberculosis,) testing, and more pre-employment hoop-jumping than I've endured lately. All for the best, one can only think, and some would suggest that aspects of it STILL need to be tighter in the name of protecting kids. All that, of course, and the myriad manners of development, and redevelopment, to help me survive attempting to teach American kids; whatever their origin may be. Still, though, there are reasons I can't wait for this phase of my life to begin; mostly ones like, it should have come a lot sooner, and I wouldn't have felt so bad for so long knowing that this WAS an option, but we'll live. I know that now.

THE FOLLOWING WAS EXCERPTED FROM NETSCAPE.COM
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Jan. 21) - An 800-horsepower Shelby Cobra, once the personal car of the racing veteran who developed the iconic sports car, has sold for $5.5 million at auction, a record for an American car.
The sale of the 1966 Shelby Cobra "Super Snake" brought a packed house to its feet Saturday at the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction after a pair of bidders drove the price up. Carroll Shelby, 84, who created the Cobra in the '60s using Ford engines and a British sport car chassis, said he built the Super Snake - with twin superchargers on a 427 cubic inch V-8 - and drove it for years. "It's a special car. It would do just over three seconds to 60 (mph), 40 years ago," Shelby told the crowd before the sale.
"I killed a buzzard with it," he said. "Nasty, nasty." The car had a twin, built for comedian Bill Cosby , but that car was destroyed in an accident while being driven by another owner, according to the Barrett-Jackson Web site. Barrett-Jackson said the $5.5 million price tag for the Cobra was not an overall world record car price, since others have sold at auction for more than $11 million. However, it is a world record for American cars, said Steve Davis, Barrett-Jackson president. The winning bidder was car collector Ron Pratt of suburban Chandler. Last year, he paid $4.32 million for the Futureliner, one of 12 futuristic buses used for shows in the 1940s and '50s by General Motors.