A brief history of
the AC Cobra
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1954 |
AC Ace, based upon John Tojeiro's
twin tube chassis with an AC engine, is unveiled at the Earls Court
Motor Show, London. Described by 'The Autocar' as "Quite one of the
best looking cars at Earls Court". |
1956 |
AC Ace now available with Bristol
six cylinder 2 litre engines to replace existing Ace engine. |
1960 |
Bristol was about to switch to V8
engines for its cars and so would be ceasing the production of the V6's.
The Ford powered ACE RS2.6 was born. |
October
1961 |
Retired racer Carroll Shelby
visited the Thames Ditton Factory in England. Shelby's aim was to build
a dream sports car - a machine that he was later happy to tell people
would "blow Ferrari's ass off". Shelby returned to the US and
arranged for a pair of Fairlane engines, selected because of their
lightweight, to be sent to the AC factory (Ford agreed to supply these
engines). |
February
1962 |
First prototype. CSX 2002,
delivered, minus the engine, to Shelby in Santa Fe Springs. |
Late
1962 |
Cars arriving to America in some
numbers for AC factory. |
October
1962 |
Shelby races CSX2002 at Riverside,
California. Driven by Billy Krause it walked away from competition until
sidelined with brocken rear hub. |
January
1963 |
First 289 Cobra completed, chassis
no. CSX2075. |
January
1963 |
First victory for Cobra at
Riverside driven by Dave MacDonald. Further appearances at Nassau,
Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans (its first foray into Europe). Two Cobras
competed at Le Mans, one retired with a blown engine the other, driven
by Ninian Sanderson and Peter Bolton, came seventh. |
Late
1963 |
AC Ace ceases production. |
October
1963 |
First 427 engined prototype built
using leaf springs. |
1964 |
Shelby enlarged his racing
programme and built several Daytona Coupes using a leaf sprung chassis.
Le Mans produced a fourth place for one of these, but AC's own special
coupe - the car that achieved notoriety by being tested at 180mph on the
M1 before the race - crashed in the race after seven hours. |
1965 |
Shelby in conjunction with Ford and
AC, was busy redesigning the Cobra. The 427 was the developed in a bid
to win the GT championship that so far had eluded him. |
4th
July 1965 |
Shelby wins at Reims, France to
clinch the 1965 Grand Touring (GT) Championship for Cobra and Ford. |
December
1966 |
Production of road going 427's
stopped. |
1968 |
The final AC 289's left the Thames
Ditton factory, bound for European market. |
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