AC Cobra
04 March 2003, 11:05 AM
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Hmm, not quite true .....
As stated above, AC does derive from the original name Auto Carriers, a strange three wheeled device often used as a delivery truck.
In the '20's AC developed a range of cars based around a 2 litre ally blocked engine designed by a chap called Weller. This engine was still aound in the '50's and AC were looking for a more modern design of car to put it in. At this time the British obsession with cars was at its height, and many people were building and racing their own cars. One such chap was John Tojeiro, and he built a car with a "ladder" chassis (old technology, even at the time) and fitted it with a copy of the body fitted by Ferrari to their sports car, the original Barchetta.
AC bought the car, fitted their own engine, and so was born the AC Ace. Strangely AC also made the three wheeled motorcycle engined invalid carriage that makes a Reliant three wheeler look exciting.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, Carrol Shelby was looking for a project. He had been a fighter pilot instructor in WWII, and on being invalided out of the US Air Force set up as a chicken farmer.
Fortunately for car enthusiasts, his chickens caught an illness and he went bankrupt. So he started working on cars for other people, then ended up racing the cars for them, finally ending up as a works driver for Aston Martin. Just as things were going well, he was retired from racing with a heart problem. So, he was looking for something to do, when he came across the new "lightweight" iron block Ford V8, and concluded that he could create a car around it to take on the Chevy Corvette. Ford gave him a lot of support for this, and he looked around for a good handling chassis, and came across AC who were in their traditional financial difficulties, and were willing to help. The work to create the Cobra Mk 1 was carried out by a chap called Ken Miles who was the engineer behind most of Shelby's cars, but Shelby was the marketing man. AC continued to make the body and chassis, and they were shipped to the US for fitting the engines unless they were being sold in UK, in which case AC fitted the engine as well. Over time Ford got keener and keener, allowing their dealers to sell and service the cars, developing the engine to produce more power, and making a huge loss on the cars as a loss leader to improve their image (a similar situation to the original 3 door Cossie).
Within a couple of years Shelby was racing and beating Ferarri in the GT series of the day. However, as the saying goes, you can't have too much capacity, and Shelby started thinking of putting the 7 litre Nascar engine into the Cobra. Miles engineered the first one, and promptly wrapped it around a tree in its first race - the only other person to drive it saying its handling was "like a greased brick". So Ford were approached, and a revised chassis designed by them using computer analysis to develop the suspension. The most important two changes were to change the transverse leaf springs for coils, and to widen the body making it somewhat ugly in comparison to the originals.
So that's a bit of history, but not really related to the question!
Duncan
[Edited by BugEyed - 4/4/2003 9:06:46 AM]
As stated above, AC does derive from the original name Auto Carriers, a strange three wheeled device often used as a delivery truck.
In the '20's AC developed a range of cars based around a 2 litre ally blocked engine designed by a chap called Weller. This engine was still aound in the '50's and AC were looking for a more modern design of car to put it in. At this time the British obsession with cars was at its height, and many people were building and racing their own cars. One such chap was John Tojeiro, and he built a car with a "ladder" chassis (old technology, even at the time) and fitted it with a copy of the body fitted by Ferrari to their sports car, the original Barchetta.
AC bought the car, fitted their own engine, and so was born the AC Ace. Strangely AC also made the three wheeled motorcycle engined invalid carriage that makes a Reliant three wheeler look exciting.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, Carrol Shelby was looking for a project. He had been a fighter pilot instructor in WWII, and on being invalided out of the US Air Force set up as a chicken farmer.
Fortunately for car enthusiasts, his chickens caught an illness and he went bankrupt. So he started working on cars for other people, then ended up racing the cars for them, finally ending up as a works driver for Aston Martin. Just as things were going well, he was retired from racing with a heart problem. So, he was looking for something to do, when he came across the new "lightweight" iron block Ford V8, and concluded that he could create a car around it to take on the Chevy Corvette. Ford gave him a lot of support for this, and he looked around for a good handling chassis, and came across AC who were in their traditional financial difficulties, and were willing to help. The work to create the Cobra Mk 1 was carried out by a chap called Ken Miles who was the engineer behind most of Shelby's cars, but Shelby was the marketing man. AC continued to make the body and chassis, and they were shipped to the US for fitting the engines unless they were being sold in UK, in which case AC fitted the engine as well. Over time Ford got keener and keener, allowing their dealers to sell and service the cars, developing the engine to produce more power, and making a huge loss on the cars as a loss leader to improve their image (a similar situation to the original 3 door Cossie). Within a couple of years Shelby was racing and beating Ferarri in the GT series of the day. However, as the saying goes, you can't have too much capacity, and Shelby started thinking of putting the 7 litre Nascar engine into the Cobra. Miles engineered the first one, and promptly wrapped it around a tree in its first race - the only other person to drive it saying its handling was "like a greased brick". So Ford were approached, and a revised chassis designed by them using computer analysis to develop the suspension. The most important two changes were to change the transverse leaf springs for coils, and to widen the body making it somewhat ugly in comparison to the originals.
So that's a bit of history, but not really related to the question!
Duncan
[Edited by BugEyed - 4/4/2003 9:06:46 AM]
03 April 2003, 09:37 AM
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03 April 2003, 09:38 AM
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AC was the name of the original car chassis used to but the the big V8 lump into to make the ac cobra.
AC was a small car manufacturer in the UK somewhere, Shelby bought the steel tubular chassis from them to make the AC cobra's. problems in the beginning as the big v8 lump produced so much tourque it twisted the chassis so they had to modify them I think in the end they made a new chassis alltogether but still based on the original design.
watch out for a "history of the cobra" TV program on sky.
AC was a small car manufacturer in the UK somewhere, Shelby bought the steel tubular chassis from them to make the AC cobra's. problems in the beginning as the big v8 lump produced so much tourque it twisted the chassis so they had to modify them I think in the end they made a new chassis alltogether but still based on the original design.
watch out for a "history of the cobra" TV program on sky.
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03 April 2003, 10:08 AM
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Thanks everyone, here's the answer.
Mark
Britain's oldest independent car marque - AC, celebrated 100 years of production in 2001.
The AC Story
John Weller and his friend John Portwine (a London butcher, whose business is still in family hands and trading in Covent Garden today) had a vision for a new motor car at the beginning of the last century. Weller was an innovative engineer and inventor and set up in partnership with three of his brothers as motor engineers, repairers and manufacturers of both cars and motor cycles. Weller Bros. were appointed as repair agents for De Dion et Bouton vehicles and commenced manufacturing vehicles to their own design.
On the 8 March 1901, they started producing cars and actively advertising their products. Preliminary work also commenced on what was to become the '20 H.P. Weller Touring Car'.
By 1902, when Weller Bros. was appointed Official Repairer to the Automobile Club, it was becoming apparent that the business needed additional working capital and John Portwine, who with his brothers operated at least eight butchers shops in London, provided the additional working capital required. Thus in 1902, Weller Bros. Ltd was formed with the four Weller brothers and Portwine as both shareholders and directors. This Company then entered into an Agreement with the original Weller Bros. to buy the business for £1,700. This was to include all stock, debts, goodwill and existing orders. The brothers were paid out in shares whilst Portwine injected cash to provide the additional working capital required to expand the business.
At the Automobile Show staged at Crystal Palace in January 1903, Weller Bros. Ltd exhibited both a 10 H.P. and a 20 H.P. Weller Touring Car. Within a year, it was decided to go into production with a three wheel commercial vehicle, the 'AutoCarrier' (from which the 'AC' name was derived) and thus in 1904 the business became Autocars and Accessories Ltd. The AutoCarrier was a great success and initial purchasers included Boots the Chemist, Selfridges, Associated Newspapers, Carr's Biscuits and Great Western Railway as well as many others. By 1909, the name had become Autocarriers Ltd and the logo that we know today was being used. In 1911 the company moved to the famous premises in Thames Ditton.
During the First World War AC concentrated on the production of shells and fuses but after the War, in 1918, a two-seat, four cylinder car costing £225 entered production.
By 1922 AC's competition achievements were of increasing importance but it was setting the record for the first car in history to cover 100 miles in one hour which was their proudest victory.
By 1928 AC was one of Britain's largest car makers, producing seven different models in total but in 1930, following the economic troubles which beset every branch of industry and commerce, the Hurlock family purchased AC. In 1933 four AC's entered in the RAC Rally took prizes and soon after exports to North American began.
In the Second World War AC's facilities were turned over to military production but by 1950 five cars a week from the two litre family were being produced. Very soon afterwards, the legendary light weight AC Ace made its first appearance.
The Aceca coupe was launched at the London Motor Show in 1954 and in both 1957 and 1958 AC cars finished well up the leader board in the Le Mans classic endurance race.
1962 saw the creation of the ultimate classic - the AC Cobra. Made by shoehorning a large US Ford V8 into the lightweight AC Ace body, the result was a motoring icon - unmatched to this day. A year later the AC Cobra was embroiled in scandal when it raced along the then brand new M1 motorway at a speed not too far short of 200 mph. This exploit directly resulted in the 70 mph limit still in force to this day. The AC Cobra went on to win many plaudits - including winning The Sports Car Championship in 1965.
Mark
Britain's oldest independent car marque - AC, celebrated 100 years of production in 2001.
The AC Story
John Weller and his friend John Portwine (a London butcher, whose business is still in family hands and trading in Covent Garden today) had a vision for a new motor car at the beginning of the last century. Weller was an innovative engineer and inventor and set up in partnership with three of his brothers as motor engineers, repairers and manufacturers of both cars and motor cycles. Weller Bros. were appointed as repair agents for De Dion et Bouton vehicles and commenced manufacturing vehicles to their own design.
On the 8 March 1901, they started producing cars and actively advertising their products. Preliminary work also commenced on what was to become the '20 H.P. Weller Touring Car'.
By 1902, when Weller Bros. was appointed Official Repairer to the Automobile Club, it was becoming apparent that the business needed additional working capital and John Portwine, who with his brothers operated at least eight butchers shops in London, provided the additional working capital required. Thus in 1902, Weller Bros. Ltd was formed with the four Weller brothers and Portwine as both shareholders and directors. This Company then entered into an Agreement with the original Weller Bros. to buy the business for £1,700. This was to include all stock, debts, goodwill and existing orders. The brothers were paid out in shares whilst Portwine injected cash to provide the additional working capital required to expand the business.
At the Automobile Show staged at Crystal Palace in January 1903, Weller Bros. Ltd exhibited both a 10 H.P. and a 20 H.P. Weller Touring Car. Within a year, it was decided to go into production with a three wheel commercial vehicle, the 'AutoCarrier' (from which the 'AC' name was derived) and thus in 1904 the business became Autocars and Accessories Ltd. The AutoCarrier was a great success and initial purchasers included Boots the Chemist, Selfridges, Associated Newspapers, Carr's Biscuits and Great Western Railway as well as many others. By 1909, the name had become Autocarriers Ltd and the logo that we know today was being used. In 1911 the company moved to the famous premises in Thames Ditton.
During the First World War AC concentrated on the production of shells and fuses but after the War, in 1918, a two-seat, four cylinder car costing £225 entered production.
By 1922 AC's competition achievements were of increasing importance but it was setting the record for the first car in history to cover 100 miles in one hour which was their proudest victory.
By 1928 AC was one of Britain's largest car makers, producing seven different models in total but in 1930, following the economic troubles which beset every branch of industry and commerce, the Hurlock family purchased AC. In 1933 four AC's entered in the RAC Rally took prizes and soon after exports to North American began.
In the Second World War AC's facilities were turned over to military production but by 1950 five cars a week from the two litre family were being produced. Very soon afterwards, the legendary light weight AC Ace made its first appearance.
The Aceca coupe was launched at the London Motor Show in 1954 and in both 1957 and 1958 AC cars finished well up the leader board in the Le Mans classic endurance race.
1962 saw the creation of the ultimate classic - the AC Cobra. Made by shoehorning a large US Ford V8 into the lightweight AC Ace body, the result was a motoring icon - unmatched to this day. A year later the AC Cobra was embroiled in scandal when it raced along the then brand new M1 motorway at a speed not too far short of 200 mph. This exploit directly resulted in the 70 mph limit still in force to this day. The AC Cobra went on to win many plaudits - including winning The Sports Car Championship in 1965.
04 April 2003, 08:38 AM
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A year later the AC Cobra was embroiled in scandal when it raced along the then brand new M1 motorway at a speed not too far short of 200 mph. This exploit directly resulted in the 70 mph limit still in force to this day.
I heard Jack Sears talking about it later in his life, and apparantly the car was running untaxed and without silencers! It must have been an impressive sight and sound. Unfortunately the story got out, the newspapers jumped on the story making it front page news, and questions were asked in Parliament. However, the 70 mph speed limit wasn't introduced as a result of this - that only came in as a "temporary" measure (like income tax
) in 1973 as a reaction to the oil crisis.Here is a photo of the car today.
The car didn't have a successful racing history - it was written off in a crash at Le Mans when a tyre blew-out, killing three spectators. It also shouldn't be confused with the Daytona Coupes built by Shelby which weren't as fast, but were a lot more successful.
Duncan
[Edited by BugEyed - 4/4/2003 9:43:31 AM]
04 April 2003, 05:04 PM
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was you down burnin bournemouth? they had a blue ac cobra down there with 75 bhp of nitrous in the back it was absolutely stunning to listen to the note of the exhaust. wasn't at all slow either lol
04 September 2003, 07:04 PM
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The year was in fact 1965, 70mph speed limit came into force from December 1965, in response to some monumental motorway pile ups caused by fools, or fog, or both in the late Autumn of that year, the Guy (Mk10 Jaguar driver) impaled on the Armco was the final straw for Barbara Castle, the then Minister of Transport, she was and remained a non driver.
[Edited by Mycroft - 4/9/2003 7:07:00 PM]
[Edited by Mycroft - 4/9/2003 7:07:00 PM]
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