Cobra strikes out to honour AC's birthday

A true sports car should be able to take on the strongest competition on the race track as well as being equally at home on the street or touring the countryside.

That's how Britain's AC Car Group Ltd describes its latest model, the AC Cobra 212 S/C, one of the fastest accelerating cars on the road.

AC Car Group Ltd is celebrating 100 years of business this year and has produced the Cobra as a celebration of its history.

Packed within the Cobra's lightweight carbon-fibre body on a space-frame chassis is a twin-turbo 3.5-litre Lotus V8 engine, which pushes the car from zero to 100 km/h in under four seconds and on to 145 km/h in nine seconds.

The car on this page is pictured on the old high-banked racing circuit at Brooklands, not far from where the Cobras are built at Weybridge, Surrey.

The AC 212 S/C (street/competition) is an eye-catching reminder of the world-beating engineering expertise that once occupied the sheds at Brooklands.

The Cobra looks like becoming a strong export earner. Buyers in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have already placed orders.

"With the Cobra, we have been able to bring together three tremendous assets in the same package", said John Owen, the company's chief engineer.

"We have got the ultimate sports car looks from the iconic AC Cobra.

"We have developed the pioneering Formula One carbon-fibre technology, and we have mated all of this into one of the most powerful engines available, the Lotus V8.

"The result is a car which should net standards - on and off the track".

The Cobra's engine is the same unit used in the Lotus Esprit. But it was detuned in the Lotus because the Esprit gearbox could not cope with the engine's torque.

The Cobra uses a six-speed manual Tremec T56 gearbox to make full use of the engine's torque. "The launch of the Cobra 212 now means the engine's full potential can be experienced for the first time", Owen said.

AC Car Group Ltd began life as Weller Bros car and motorcycle repairers in London in 1901.

It was started by an engineer called John Weller and his three brothers. A family friend, John Portwine, a butcher whose business is still in family hands in Covent Garden, helped finance the company.

Weller Bros soon began building its own car, the Weller Touring Car, with some success and in 1902 was appointed official repairer to the Royal Automobile Club.

Business continued to grow and that same year it expanded to become Weller Bros Ltd. Portwine became a shareholder.

At an automobile show at Crystal Palace in January 1903, Weller Bros. Ltd showed two of its Touring Cars, producing 10 and 20 horsepower.

A year later it built a three-wheel commercial vehicle called the AutoCarrier (the origin of the name AC) and changed its company name to Autocars and Accessories Ltd.

The AutoCarrier was a great success and in 1909 the company became Autocarriers Ltd, using the same AC logo in use today.

During the First World War it built munitions. After the war it started production on a four-cylinder two-seater costing £225.

In 1922, an AC model became the first car to cover a distance of 100 miles inside one hour.

In 1928, the company was one of Britain's biggest carmakers, building seven different models.

But it hit hard times after the stock market crash in 1929 and was bought by a family called Hurlock.

In 1933, the new owners entered four AC cars in the Royal Automobile Club Rally and began exports to America.

In the Second World War, the AC plant was turned over to military production. But by 1950 the plant was building five two-litre cars a week.

Soon after, the legendary lightweight AC Ace made its first appearance.

The Aceca coupe was launched at the London Motor Show in 1954 and in 1957 and 1958, AC cars finished well up on the leader board in the Le Mans endurance race.

In 1962, the classic AC Cobra was launched. A large Ford V8 was shoehorned into the lightweight AC Ace body - the result was a motoring icon.

A year later the AC Cobra was embroiled in scandal when it raced along Britain's then brand new M1 motorway at nearly 300 km/h.

This exploit directly resulted in the 70 mph (113 km/h) limit still in force to this day.

In 1986, the Hurlock family, after nearly 60 years of ownership, sold the business to Autokraft and the Ford Motor Company, which built the new factory in Weybridge.

A new two-seater - the AC Ace grand tourer - made its first appearance in 1991 just before Ford sold its interest in the business.

Later, in 1996, after a period when more time was spent on restoring old aircraft than building cars, AC went into receivership.

It was rescued by a group of businessman who created AC Car Group Ltd and set about restoring the marque to its former prestige.

In the five years since it has made tremendous progress, the most successful step being the use carbon-fibre as the key bodybuilding material.

Hand-made aluminium cars, for which AC is justly famous, are still available to special order.