On behalf of all the Brits - I concur. Of course there would not have been a Cobra - that's a statement of the Bleedin' Obvious. Even a Brit could figger that out, but it's about 75% sure there would have been a V8-powered Ace as both AC and Ken Rudd were on that case. But it would never have been so well developed, the 'legend' would never have been born (and hyped to the heavens) and the current unseemly scramble to 'invest' the kids inheritance would never have occurred. AC would have bumbled along for who knows how long? They did make some good cars but development was lacking as they thought they could do it all themselves. Either way, it had a good run since 1901. Not bad for a small, useless company. The UK has a history of small auto companies that came and went and left some good cars in their wake - Jensen, TVR, Marcos etc etc
I always amuses me that when Shelby American won the FIA GT Championship in 1965, the press coverage in the USA was zero as it was such a minor victory. And it remained at zero for years until the hype began. (There was a fairly major UK involvement in that class victory, but we don't talk about that either do we...
On the matter of the Ace - an historical footnote maybe, but check out its SCCA results first, before putting the boot in.