AC Continuation or Kirkham

[london]

Originally Posted by What'saCobra?

Nice copy job, partner. Thanks for that.

Now, your mission should you decide to accept it: publish which of these cars was completed by which of the several corporations and when. (Hint: nearly all of the cars' serial numbers have meaning, when fabricated/shipped by AC under Angliss. Further post-continuation production cars feom successor "AC" companies may have less reliable number meaning, depending on which of the several AC follow-on companies completed/registered/serialized the cars.)

Even those produced by AC Cars Ltd. (GB) changed numbers post shipment based on various political and technical (read: tax) needs. For instance, COB 6133 (and others) left the factory Registered as CSX 4003. Apparently, at some point after the cars became known to Shelby, at his insistence the serial numbers were revised out of Shelby's intended band of HIS "continuations" (CSX 4000 series, which DID happen at SA). i suppose it was deemed more wise to avoid litigation with Shel, who may have had FORD's tacit support on this issue. Certainly, the COX designation is correct to AC history, though not usually intended for US consumption, rather Europe. Likely, Shel' argued (conveniently, at that moment) that the S in CSX stood for Shelby.

Further, the (dark blue) 289 MKII was not shipped to Finland. Rather, it has remained in GB, quietly residing in a professional collection as the very last of its type before the Lubinsky massacre. It was finished as a RHD, converted to LHD upon my request, then reverse converted back to RHD at the instructions of its (i believe still) current English owner. When first completed in 1995, it had an original 289 from an original car, shipped upon purchase from Michigan in the US. The Registry indicates that the chassis had been used as a body jig by AC in Thames Ditton for some time. Brian confirmed that at the time.

Even further, some chassis' have been swapped in the past to better reflect owner intent or transient/temporary tax issues. (For instance, i know the specific details ((translation: paperwork and data plate) of an original McLaren M8F whose serial numbers changed for each trip from Switzerland to other EU races and the British factory during the original Can-Am series. The factory participated in this convenience to assist their customer with oddball laws and International documentation requirements.) So a careful and knowledgeable inspection of an actual chassis is necessary to learn better the real/original/current chassis status. If we're going to pay current numbers for these special and valuable chassis/cars, we need help to ensure our anticipated values. The Shelby scam with false "left-over chassis laid down in the day and forgotten" ought to remain the high-watermark warning to potential buyers/investors.

This is very interesting and highlights how difficult it will be for anyone wishing to document an accurate record of the AC Continuation cars. If only I could get hold of COB 4004 - a beautiful car!