- AC has revealed the Cobra GT Coupe, the first time the firm has offered a fixed-roof Cobra road car.
- The Coupe is a fastback version of the new Cobra GT Roadster and features the same aluminum chassis.
- AC says it’s inspired by the one-off AC A98 Le Mans car from the early 1960s, and not Shelby’s conceptually similar Cobra Daytona.
The AC Cobra has been fitted with multiple different engines, wildly different fender widths and even been offered with a carbon body during its 62-year production run. But incredibly, the new Cobra GT Coupe is the first genuine AC Cobra to feature a coupe body.
Essentially a closed-roof version of the new Cobra GT Roadster, a radical attempt to update the icon in a Morgan-like fashion using a modern aluminum chassis and tech while retaining the classic silhouette, the Coupe launches as a track-focused Clubsport Edition with a 799 hp (810 PS) supercharged V8 and is limited to 99 examples.
Related: AC Cars Unveils Modern Cobra GT Roadster, Blending Classic Charm With 654 HP
Series production GT Coupes, available with either a normally aspirated 450bhp (456 PS) V8 or a 720bhp (730 PS) supercharged V8 follow, priced from £325,000 ($417,000) plus taxes. Each car will be built at AC’s UK workshop and feature a carbon fiber body that’s longer than the original Cobra’s to make it more comfortable and user-friendly for modern drivers.
That Carroll Shelby and Peter Brock created a fastback Daytona Cobra in 1964 in an effort to improve on the roadster’s speed at Le Mans is well known, but AC says the GT Coupe takes its inspiration from AC’s own conceptually similar but far less famous A98 coupe that appeared earlier that same year.
Both cars employed a Kammtail design, which the new GT also features, but unlike the A98 and Daytona, which paired that slash-cut rear end treatment with wind-cheating new noses, the new Coupe retains a classic Cobra face with two round headlights.
Shelby’s Daytona never made it to Le Mans in 1964 because it wasn’t finished in time, but the A98 did. Unfortunately it suffered a blowout that caused it to crash out. But the A98 is more famous for its alleged part in Britain setting a 70 mph (113 km/h) speed limit on its then-new motorway network.
AC used the M1 motorway to explore its Le Mans contender’s top speed before the race, reaching 185 mph (298 km/h) during tests, and although no laws were broken, because there was no speed limit, the story made the press. The driver on that occasion, Jack Sears, told Autocar in an interview that the UK government’s decision to introduce a temporary 70 mph limit in 1965, and then make it permanent in 1967, was unrelated, but we’ll probably never know for sure.
