Who Remembers the AC Cobra?

The original AC Cobra was a hybrid sportscar that consisted of a British designed roadster sports car fitted with an American engine and transmission.

In 1961, which is now the old days, Carroll Shelby and AC Cars took a dated AC Ace sports car and got together to design a body to fit a Ford 427 cubic inch V8 engine with a Borg-Warner T-10 four-speed transmission and the resulting sports car made history.

The original plan for the AC Cobra was to be a Corvette-killer. The Cobra was one of the fastest sports cars available at that time. The body and chassis were produced in the UK and subsequently tuned by Carroll Shelby International Inc in the USA. They became famous as a Shelby Cobra and a Shelby AC Cobra in the USA and AC Cobra in Europe until 1968, when the Shelby/AC collaboration ended. Since 1969 genuine AC Cobra has been produced by AC Cars.

AC Cars is really one of Britain’s oldest vehicle manufacturers and they have recently unveiled a modern-day version of the iconic AC Cobra now named the GT Roadster. The new car was presented at a special event hosted at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The new AC Cobra GT Roadster is heavily inspired by the original model but has been made much more modern and will be offered in left or right-hand drive configurations.

Underpinning the car is a new chassis with a 284 mm longer wheelbase than the original vehicle and the track has also been increased. The chassis is made from extruded aluminium while the bodywork is made from carbon composites and weighs just 50 kg.

Some mouth-watering stats, AC Cars says that the new Cobra GT Roadster will come standard with a powerful 5.0L supercharger V8 engine that delivers 334kW’s in standard configuration and 480kW’s in the flagship version.

Customers can have the 5.0L supercharged V8 coupled to either a 6-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic transmission.

The flagship version of the Cobra GT Roadster can hit 96K’s in just 3.4 seconds. This sports car is so quick because of the power to weight ratio weighing in at just 1,450 kg’s.

The exterior design of the vehicle is almost identical to the original, but the proportions have changed slightly given that it is a little bit bigger. Some of the parts have also been modernised. For example, the car comes standard with new headlights with LED daytime running lights and also sits on much larger wheels.

The dashboard consists of plenty of circular gauges while a three-spoke steering wheel is fitted as standard. There is also a Start/Stop button hidden beneath a red flap that can be easily flipped open, similar to that of various Lamborghini models. A small infotainment screen is also featured.

AC Cars are saying that there has been huge positive feedback.

June 2023