AC Cobra

The AC Cobra is a British sports car that was originally planned for racing. Production began in 1962.

The Texan Carroll Shelby developed the built by the automobile manufacturer founded in 1905 AC AC Ace model further, after AC proposed to incorporate an American eight-cylinder engine in the Ace chassis. The Cobra was made famous by him. Shelby sat in the car a a Ford engine, which is why some Americans speak of a Ford Cobra. Today, some prices are paid over 300,000 euros for an original Cobra.

Development history of the AC Cobra

The Ace - production had already fallen when former racing driver Carroll Shelby from America offered in 1961 to upgrade the car by means of a powerful Ford V8 engine. The formalities were quickly fixed, and Ford began to deliver modified 4.3- liter V8 engines.

Shelby's proposals were rapidly implemented in the AC plant Thames Ditton, so that the first car was already in February 1962 on American roads. It would have been easy just to put a V8 into the engine compartment. Instead, however, the frame transmission and suspension the more powerful engine have been reinforced and adapted. In addition, the car, the Salisbury differential and disc brakes received from the Jaguar E -Type. For the transmission of power was provided by a Borg Warner four-speed gearbox.

The track was widened, as are the fenders. This created the Cobra typical lean, but muscular -looking form. The performance was breathtaking ( the top speed was 240 km / h) and immediately led to racing success in America. Encouraged, Ford participated more and sent new development proposals to Thames Ditton, where the cars were delivered without engines.

The American racing program led to a series of innovations of the 1962 Cobra 289 with its 4.7-liter V8 engine and steering rack.

In January 1965 then appeared the type 427 with 7 -liter engine, 312 kW ( 425 hp) at 6500 rpm and a maximum torque of 641 Nm.

The development of the Cobra 427 but had begun earlier. It was Driven by the experimental racer Ken Miles, who a 427- cubic -inch monitor mounted in the chassis of a 289er Cobra 1964. This Ford engine was from the NASCAR racing series. During the first use of this vehicle still ended in a spectacular crash, the second professionally promoted attempt was successful. However, it quickly became clear that the previous Cobra was overwhelmed by this performance. Thus, the vehicle was the help of specialists at Ford and AC Cars, practically completely revamped. The 427er Cobra has a stiffer frame and coil springs with internal shock absorbers, the wheels are suspended by double wishbones. The storage of the suspension was made depending on the planned purpose of the Cobra either in rubber ( road versions ) or much harder bronze ( or sporty street racing versions versions). The drive shafts and brakes ( Girling disc brakes, front 292 mm, rear 273 mm diameter) were much larger in size, to match the brute force development. In addition, the body was again widened to make room for the wider tires in the dimension of 8.15 × 15. The vehicles were still made ​​in England, and later painted in the USA and equipped with engines. Since it is the 427er concerned a lightweight engine for racing, passed by the Ford Motor Company delivery problems for this propellant. Therefore, the majority of 427er Cobras was equipped with a 428 cubic inch model, as can be seen also on the sticker on the Cobra of the first image. The 428er was somewhat less powerful than the 427er, with 265 kW (360 hp ) are available. Models for the automotive sport, however, were equipped with the 427er. Among these are the few -built homologation 427-S/C-Modelle, the lasting impact on the image of the Cobra with racing stripes and side pipes. S / C stands for "semi Competition", and so these models were also not far from a pure racing car. They differed from the normal Cobra in various details such as instrument placement, the aforementioned side pipes or waiving of comfort features. From this model, 50 units were built, of which 16 so far modified, that they could be used as a successful race car. Later, many Cobras were converted to S/C- " lookalikes ". A total of 427 348 models were built from the Shelby Cobra. The production of the Shelby Cobras ended in 1966. AC exhibited his own with coil springs and provided with the wider body 289er version here until 1968, but then lost interest in this vehicle, and developed less powerful concepts based on the Cobra chassis to drop them off in Europe. Shelby focused on the Shelby Mustang, based on the Ford Mustang Fastback.

The time of the Cobra seemed expired. Brian Angliss, founder of Car Craft in Brooklands, came with AC agreed to be able to continue the emblem, and took the form alive. In the early 1990s, the Cobra emerged as AC Mark IV again. Since 1995, Shelby Cobras again be built in Las Vegas. These vehicles make a few concessions to the modern licensing requirements, since they are built by Carroll Shelby with the original 427er engine in the USA. As a logical consequence of these vehicles have the chassis number CSX 4xxxx

Cobra versions

• AC Cobra 260: the original version of 1962 Ford 4.3- liter V8 engine.
• Cobra Mark II 289: Had the same structure as the first version was, but equipped with the 4.7-liter V8 engine from Ford and best-selling model in Europe.
• Cobra 427: Modified, enhanced version of the Mk II, equipped with a 7 -liter V8 engine and over 250 km / h
• AC 428: The Cobra 427 chassis with a new coupe or Spider steel structure, designed by Frua in Turin. Without influence of Shelby AC produced exclusively by 1966-1973.
• Cobra Mark IV: Improved version with stronger grid tubes, disc brakes, five-speed transmission and luxury amenities, produced from 1975 by Autocraft.

Story in bullet points

There are now a lot more of the Cobra replicas than the original models. The qualitative range is very broad. Very cheap and common replicas (as kit cars ) use axles and chassis parts used or injured Jaguar sedans and a four-cylinder Ford engine; the body often consists of a GRP laminate. These replicas broke in the past frequently for copyright litigation. They led in part to preventing the authorization for private buyers and builders of kit cars.

Technical data and measuring values

In December 1983, a Cobra Mk IV was subjected by the motoring magazine Auto, Motor und Sport a test. When accelerating from 0-100 km / h, the new Cobra set a record in the AMS test history. She was the first car with MOT approval, the sprinted under 5 seconds from zero to one hundred. It should take a few years for a Ferrari 288 GTO was even faster.