AC Cobra Coupe 1964

Just something about the cars from this era, full of curves yet menacing looking. This is the one of a kind AC Cobra Coupe. AC Cars, which build the Ace on which the Shelby Cobra was based, built this to take on the Shelby Daytona Coupes at the 1964 24 hours of Le Mans.

Courtesy of Just a Car Guy, via  Primotipo;

Visibly lower than the Pete Brock designed Daytona coupe (41 inches compared with 48 inches- its height a function of uncertainty over Le Mans windscreen height regs) both designers sat the drivers lower in the car. Turner had also raked the windscreen, created a lower nose section and a longer flowing roof as well as designing the ‘eyebrows’ over the tops of the wheel arches he claimed help clean up airflow. During Le Mans Sears and Bolton were timed at 180.2mph @ 6300rpm, matching the Daytona Cobras despite giving away 30bhp to the Shelby entries- AC cars chassis #A98 had a 289cid/4.7 litre ‘Windsor’ engine which developed circa 355bhp, the Shelby cars had around 385bhp.

The car qualified conservatively second in class behind the Gurney/Bondurant Shelby entry and ran in that race position, at one point leading the class early in the race averaging 20mph for the first 3.5 hours. The big coupe began to have fuel feed problems which were found after the race to be caused by newspaper in the fuel tank- sabotage- which blocked the fuel filter. Much time was lost as the filter blockage was diagnosed and remedied.

A tire blew out late in the race, and the wreck of Coupe A98 was brought back to the AC headquarters in Thames Ditton and never rebuilt and or raced further ‘in period’. The very significant car was restored by Barrie Baird who negotiated its purchase in 1972. The work took over 12 years

https://primotipo.com/2018/03/08/ac-cobra-coupe/

 

 

Shelby AC3000 ME 1981

AC Cars might not ring as many bells as Shelby but it is one of the oldest independent automobile manufacturers in Britain. Of course their greatest claim to fame was creating the AC Ace, the car Carroll Shelby based the AC Cobra on and later the S/C Cobras and Dayton Coupes.

In the 1970's AC developed the AC 3000ME. This small 2-seat mid-engine sports car had a transversely mounted Ford Essex 3.0 liter V6. As was classic for the era the styling was wedge-shaped using fiberglass for the body. It had front and rear independent double-wishbone suspension, rack and pinion steering, and four-wheel disc brakes, with a rearward 40:60 weight bias. On paper it should have been a real performer!

At about the same time PanterAmerica was importing DeTomaso Panteras into the U.S. after the Lincoln-Mercury/DeTomaso agreement ended in 1974. PanterAmerica also wanted to bring an affordable mid-engine car to the U.S. and the Belgian dealer they purchased the Panteras from was also an AC dealer. The AC 3000ME seemed the logical choice. PanterAmerica imported a rolling AC 3000ME, without engine and transaxle. The drivetrain was supposed to come from a U.S. manufacturer. However, they had problems acquiring drivetrains from either Ford or GM, the only option left was to go with Chrysler. But instead of going to them directly they spoke with Carroll Shelby, who had been recently hired by Chrysler. Carroll was on board with their idea provided a fuel-injected, turbocharged Chrysler 4-cylinder, 2.2 engine

Panteramerica restyled the body slightly, mainly front fenders and front end, with a new design, painted the car blue and silver, and added new Compomotive split rims. The prototype was presented to Lee Iacocca., but unfortunately, Iacocca, then in the middle of trying to save Chrysler, didn’t warm up to the idea of a low-volume mid-engine sports car, leaving the Shelby AC 3000ME a one-of-a-kind. Its a shame, a car that could have been a real contender, and ahead of the Pontiac Fiero, but fell by the wayside