I hope the back room can settle a dispute. (Well I've already lost but I'd like to know why...)
I seem to recall the AC Cobra starting life as a gutless sports two seater with a dodgy steering rack of a British production car that never quite worked.
Looking into the history of AC cars the name Cobra only appeared after a massive US engine had been put in an AC cars chassis.
So what is the guttless two seater with the dodgy steering rack I'm thinking off? Is it the Healey?
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Dave
AC produced the Ace (convertible) and Aceca (Coupe) models, with 2 litre 6cylinder engines (I think Ford ? and Bristol units). I believe the Cobra was a development of the Ace, as you say renamed Cobra when the American V8 was fitted, as a method of improving the performance. Are they what you were thinking of?
Regards
John
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Yes John I thought of the Ace but with the 120bhp 6cyl engine (choice of Ford or Bristol I think) and a claimed 125mph max wasn't sure it fitted the description.
David
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David
No, I'm not sure either how it drove, but I'm sure the Ace was the basis of the Cobra. I believe the Ford engine was only 90bhp, although the Bristol unit was 120, so it would not have been that fast with the small engine.
Regards
john
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The bloke I lost the argument to has just told me I'm thinking of the Sprite which was fitted with the 'A' series engine.
I think he's right.
Bastard. ;-)
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I think you will find that the 90bhp was considerably more. The Ford engine used was a Zephyr (2.6 litre?) with a cylinder head made by Raymond Mays. Balanced pistons, rods (by selecting parts from the Ford stock?) together with a choice of either 3 very large SU's or 3 double choke Weber carbs pushed output to more like 120 bhp whilst the Bristol engined versions were more. All this in a car that only weighed 16cwt (that's just over three quarters of a ton for the younger readers!) gave these cars some considerable performance. I had one and enjoyed "losing" other sports cars of the time.
There was also an AC 6 cylinder version that was more like 90 bhp.
It was said, unkindly, that AC had 3 of every thing to take care of the things that fell off! 3 carbs, 3 windscreen wipers, can't remember the rest.
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Tony
Thanks for that. I did query the Ford engine in my reply, because I couldn't think of a 6cylinder 2.0 litre Ford of that era. So, it was in-house AC engine then in the late '50s. I didn't have a reference to the use of the bigger 6 cylinder Ford.
regards
John
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I followed a Cobra for a mile or so on Monday.
First one I'd seen for a time.
Even the exhaust sound gives the same tingle as that of a RR Merlin.
Reminded my wife that it was my birthday in a fortnight and if she was short on ideas ..........................
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You want a Spitfire? No traffic worries at all!
...and those machine cannons ought to deal with cameras!
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Well done Tony Cooper. Haymarket's boss, Simon Taylor, as an Ace. See also Car by Car Breakdown. My first drive in a 'Cobra' was in a Superblower at Castle Combe before they put the extra chicanes in. Huge fun. Not at all scarey and with a nice adjustable chassis. You could feel exactly what each road wheel was doing. Obviously not as quick as an Esprit V8, but still enormous fun. A few months later I spent two hours driving a 220bhp cooking version round a test track in January sleet with the top down for a TV programme. No worries. I'd still rather have been doing that than sitting in front of a keyboard.
HJ
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I can feel an "Is a Cobra faster than a bike thread coming on!"
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