AC enters the fray

[REAL 1]

To me it matters not whether JP owns AC or not. Couldn't care less.

It was the Cobra and Shelby who breathed new life into AC in 1962. They were tedering on the brink pretzel wagons and all when Shelby showed up. Shelby and the Cobra probably saved AC not their pretzel wagons.

While the AC is very nice and has the allure of being built by the same Company that built the original body and chasis their product no longer, their car no longer has any connection with the father of the Cobra.

In essence and correctly stated the AC 289 and AC 427 are actually a replica or copy of a Shelby Cobra. They copied Shelby's developements and refinements to the car and sold it in Europe as the AC 427. Especially true as to the FIA variants and 427s. Without CS and his Cobra there never would have been a AC Cobra nor any of the subsequent Autokraft lookalikes. Period.

What made the Cobra special and gave it its "magic" came from CS and Shelby American along with their tremendous efforts, tremendously talented personnel and the legends of motorsport from Shelby American including CS himself that make the car the stuff of legends. Not AC. Either AC or SAI was capable of physically fabricating the body and chasis. In fact look at the development of Flip Top/427 and the Coupe'. SAI chose to let AC continue with their subcontract role as fabricator for economical reasons.

Today Shelby American through their own fabricators builds their Cobra (and it has always and will always be "their Cobra") to exact historical specs and with better quality than AC ever did in the 60's.

Without Shelby and SAI the Ace was a washed up little roadster destined to be nothing more than a footnote in some history book. Shelby saw the potential in the car and developed and refined it into a world beater in both 289 and 427 variants. Anyone who thinks different is just kidding themselves.

It was fortuitous coincidence that AC happened to have been already producing a chasis that Shelby saw promise in and which needed saving and developement. Thats AC's role.

Those are the facts. The truth hurts but there it is.