AC COBRA GT ROADSTER

Sixties icon reborn with evolved look and new parts

- MATT PRIOR

I want to say that AC Cars is back, even though it has never really been away. But thanks to a big cash injection, the storied British marque has a new plan for its classic-shaped cars (watch this space) and, more significantly for this section of the magazine, an allnew model: the Cobra GT Roadster.

It's new but still looks Cobra-ish, no? Like when BMW reinvented the Mini or Fiat revived the 500, it's an entirely different thing from a familiar shape. It's bigger, too, of course, because people and components are bigger than they were when the Ace, from which the original Cobra morphed, was launched in 1953. It's 1.98m across the body but only 4.23m long, with a 2.57m wheelbase. For what it's worth, I think it looks terrific, just short of caricature, almost as if AC had never stopped developing the Cobra and crucially, given how many makers of replicas there are, it won't be mistaken for one of those.

Beneath is a mostly extruded aluminium chassis, but the body is carbonfibre, courtesy of a Sussexbased composites company that AC recently bought, and this is where I find my test car - the only prototype in the UK. Most of the development work is taking place in Germany, and by the time you read this, the car will be back there.

The layout is as traditional as you might expect (and perhaps hope): there's an engine in the front - a 5.0-litre Ford V8 with or without a supercharger - driving the rear axle. The gearbox is either a Tremec six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic.