Beschreibung:

1967 AC COBRA MK III TWIN-TURBO ROADSTER 'COB 1' Chassis No. COB 6131 Engine No. HM 201 Registration No. COB 1 Metallic midnight blue with blue/grey leather interior. Engine: V8, 427cu in., 6997cc, twin Garrett turbochargers, Holley 'double-pumper' carburettor, c.750bhp at 6000rpm; clutch: triple dry plate; gearbox: manual four-speed with synchromesh, limited-slip differential; suspension: independent all-round by wishbones and heavy- duty coil springs. Right hand drive. Ford Motor Company of Detroit had a very fine small block V8 powerplant they wanted to use in International Championship racing; AC Cars of Surrey had a much admired all-independent suspension two-litre roadster for which the engine supply had just dried up; retired racing driver Carroll Shelby very much wanted to drop an american V8 engine into a British-style sports chassis and market the result in the US. Those three threads came together in 1961 and produced the 4.7 litre, 289cu in. Cobra, first shown at the New York Auto Show in 1962. Ford achieved their International Racing championship, AC built Cobra's, Shelby's race tuning and sales organisation thrived. Ford decided they really wanted to race their monumental 7 litre 427 V8 in an improved Cobra chassis and in a whirlwind of transatlantic design activity the Cobra MkIII was born. The old-fashioned leaf springs were replaced by adjustable coil-spring and wishbone suspension; the bodyshell was stretched and reshaped, creating one of the most enduring high performance automobile outlines. Then Ford switched its racing effort elsewhere and the Cobra ceased to be part of their plans. As contracted, AC shipped a number of cars to Shelby in California and built another few with small-block engines for European customers as the MkIII 289. Gradually as demand tailed off, AC themselves looked in other directions. Several MkIII chassis remained at the factory, some as rolling chassis, others as bare frames. One such was COB 6131, the last but one of only 32 MkIII European Cobras. The chassis was first sold to Paramount Films, then aquired by Brian Angliss, at that time running Autokraft, a company specialising in the restoration and recreation of Cobras. Autokraft became the nucleus of a new AC Cars company under Mr Angliss, aquiring jigs, tools and body bucks. This chassis was developed in his workshops to its present unique specification from 1971 to 1979. The engine is a rebuilt and blue-printed Ford competition 427 with side-oiler and cross-bolt main bearings and medium-rise heads. There are special 7.5:1 compression ratio pistons together with a reprofiled cam and finned alloy 'Cobra Le Mans' rocker covers. Originally fitted in 1978 but re-engineered by Power Engineering in 1993, the installation features twin Garrett turbochargers specially designed and developed for the system and has wastegates and an intercooler. To keep pace there is a pressurised 850cfm Holley 'double-pumper' carburettor supplemented with separate fuel injection. An oil cooler is fitted and there is a custom-built balanced exhaust system. Power at maximum revolutions is estimated to be 750bhp at 7.0 bar boost. The transmission features a special heavy-duty clutch rated to over 1000lbs/ft whilst the gearbox is a Ford top-loader with Hurst shifter and there is a Salisbury limited-slip differential with 3.31:1 rear axle giving 26mph per 1000rpm in top and a theoretical maximum of close to 180mph. In keeping with this potential, magnesium alloy 15inch BRM wheels as fitted to the Ford GT40 are fitted with Dunlop Racing CR82 tyres. Servo-assisted ventilated discs have been installed. The vendor, who has owned this Cobra throughout its life, has found that it is completely docile, running smoothly at 1000rpm in top gear and through city traffic without distress, which we can vouch for. There is a driver's roll-cage, full racing harness and a 40 gallon fuel tank with Monza fillers. The interior is trimmed in dark blue Bridge of Weir hid