[Dangerous poll #2] Who played the most important role in the Cobra?

[Steve Cassani]

Alan Turner

Rinsey Mills, AC Cobra-The truth Behind theAnglo-American Legend- tells of Turner's role in the organization. Mills' account of Turner's continuing work to modify the Tojeiro chassis to accept a variety of engines leaves me convinced that the Hurlock brothers accepted Shelby's proposal on the strength of Turner's assurance that installing a 221 cubic inch 3.6 litres), compact V8 would be just another step, not differing in any important respect from the changes he had successfuly engineered since 1953. Keep in mind here that the Hurlocks were nearly bankrupt. Had Turner foreseen a need to modify the chassis in ways that did not build on what he had already achieved, the resulting added cost of redesign and manufacture would have killed the project.

At the time of Shelby's first visit to AC, the company had an inventory of chassis', suspension parts and all the other stuff, anticipating continued production of the Bristol and Rudspeed Ace. None of these bits could be tossed out, nor could any be modified, short of what the company had done to accomodate the Bristol engine. Suppliers, too, were locked in and some were disputing untimely payments for work already delivered to AC.

Turner assured the owners of AC that Shelby had a new idea which offerred a familiar and easily accomodated approach to continuing production, the sort of thing the company had managed sucessfully since they bought the original chassis design. Had Turner determined a need for heavier guage chassis tubes or a truly independent suspension, the Hurlocks would have had no choice but to defer to their engineer's advice and thank Shelby for his interest in the company.