Old snake, new tricks: driving the AC Cobra MkII

The timing of my first few yards in AC’s ‘new’ Cobra MkII 347 is spectacularly bad. Gingerly making my way from its temporary base above Brooklands Museum’s historic Finishing Straight, the heavens open with truly biblical fervour.

Any thoughts of a road trip in this factory continuation car that even hints at the Cobra 427’s transamerica thrash in the 1976 film The Gumball Rally are washed away as quickly as some of the loose rubble on Brooklands’ track.

If nothing else, our slightly shorter schlep will now include some of Gumball’s filmic grit as we take on the rain-swept roads of southern England, picking up destinations that have particular relevance to this 2024 Cobra’s heritage.

AC Cars, as you will have seen from Matt Prior’s prototype drive of the new Cobra GT Roadster, is now bringing the marque full pelt into the 21st century.

But the car I’m driving is the Roadster’s genesis, being one of four final MkII Cobras the factory will make and ending a somewhat erratic production run, which started more than 62 years ago in February 1962.

Of course, this last-of-the-line MkII is not completely faithful to its 1960s forebear, with each car needing to comply with current Individual Vehicle Approval regs.

The upside is that the MkII’s power output is up by 50% to 400bhp, thanks to the installation of a bespoke, 347cu in (that’s 5.7 litres) Ford V8, the design of which is based on the original car’s ‘small-block’ 289cu in, or 4.7-litre, unit.

Still with an iron block and aluminium heads, the engine is built to AC’s own specification by Prestige Performance in North Carolina and, as you would expect, swaps the in-period four-barrel Autolite carb for modern Holley fuel injection.

Mated to this is a five-speed Tremec TKX gearbox, which, as we will see, is thoroughly in keeping with the Cobra’s character. It delivers drive to the rear wheels via a Quaife limited-slip differential.

Other than these not insignificant changes, the MkII is the genuine article.

Its body is identical to that of the original model (save for being made from composite materials rather than aluminium) and, to my eyes at least, is the sweet spot of the Cobra dynasty, looking more like the AC Ace on which it was based rather than the MkIII with its Carlos Fandango tyres and steroidal arch extensions.

This MkII also retains a 3in tubular-steel ladder-frame chassis and rides on period-correct 15in wire wheels, just as before.

Mind, the thought of venturing on to these sodden roads in a 330bhp-per-tonne projectile with all-round leaf-spring suspension really does focus your mind.

But at least we can ease into our road trip at sane speeds. We’ve started at Brooklands because from 1988 and into the ’90s AC’s factory was situated along a now redeveloped section of the old Finishing Straight, after Brian Angliss’s Autokraft company acquired the rights to the AC name.

As well as continuing to build the Cobra MkIV, Angliss attempted a modern take on the Ace, but high development costs brought the company to its knees after only 50 cars had been built.

A more upbeat link with Brooklands can also be found from 1922 (the company’s history stretches back to even earlier in the last century), when an AC became the first 1500cc car to cover 100 miles in an hour on the old banked circuit.

Today, though, we’re struggling to even hit the urban speed limit as we wade our way across London’s western suburbs to our next destination.

Mercifully the rain has subsided, but since we’re roofless today, a tonneau cover protects the passenger side of the cabin for when it returns.

You sit low in the Cobra’s leather-trimmed bucket seat facing a deep dashboard ush/pull buttons – for heat, wipers and so on – and a further four unmarked flick-switches, one of which is for lights while the others remain a mystery for now.

A classic three-spoke, wood-rimmed steering wheel looks quite large for the cabin – although it’s probably ’60s-accurate – but no doubt calms your responses at high speeds, as well as giving you extra leverage at parking speeds for the unassisted rack.

It’s all in keeping with this car’s authenticity, though, so when you fire up the Cobra and shut your eyes, you could be on the starting grid at Goodwood’s Revival.

Exhausts exit either side of the car, and even at idle they produce a mellifluous rumble, with a portend of what’s to come.

The clutch is appropriately heavy and the gearlever located further back than you would expect. But with this much torque you can happily bumble around in top gear, with the engine turning at just 1000rpm at 30mph.

Thames Ditton, Surrey, is our next stop and the spiritual home of the original Cobra.

AC was based here from 1911, occupying the old Ferry Works, which still exists as a multi-business hub today. Brothers William and Charles Hurlock bought the business in 1930, and the company moved to another since-demolished site in town, now commemorated by a plaque on the side of a modern building.

It was here in 1961 that a Texan chap by the name of Carroll Shelby approached the Hurlocks after being impressed by their Ace model’s competition success.

Working for Ford, Shelby had been tasked with stealing some of the thunder GM had generated with its Chevrolet Corvette, and he had developed a new lightweight V8 for the purpose – one that, with a bit of angle-grinding, could be installed in AC’s Ace.

A deal was struck, giving Ford a ready-made Corvette challenger and AC a second, V8-powered wind for its by then eight-year-old Ace.

In February 1962, the first car from an initial order for 100 AC Cobras rolled out of the Thames Ditton factory, destined for Dean Moon’s Santa Fe Springs speed shop in the US where the new 260cu in (4.2-litre) engine would be fitted.

But after just 126 cars had been produced, a MkII emerged with rack and pinion steering (replacing the Ace’s steering box) and a larger, 289cu in engine making 270bhp.

In all, AC and Shelby produced just under 530 MkII Cobras before production ended in 1965 and switched to the fatter and even more powerful MkIII variant. 

But it’s this MkII version, with its narrower hips and skinnier tyres, that not only pays more heed to AC’s heritage but also is a better fit – both physically and aesthetically – for UK roads.

If proof were needed (and we decide it is), we motor south to Goodwood Motor Circuit, our next photo stop, on the A283 in West Sussex.

The Cobra is in its element on a twisty, relatively narrow, fast-moving road like this. It requires all your concentration, and to some extent courage, to maintain a decent pace, especially on gnarled, sometimes waterlogged surfaces.

But the rewards are manifold: smooth applications of the throttle are vital on the exit from bends in order not to excite the leaf-sprung rear end, but extend the Cobra’s V8 down the straights and you’re repaid with a soundtrack that’s as uniquely American as Gershwin or pumpkin pie. 

The hard-edged hammering of eight pistons working hard grows into a guttural roar as you trip past 4500rpm: it sounds so damned violent (but also intoxicating) that you’re tricked into believing the Cobra is travelling faster than it actually is.

AC estimates a five-second 0-60mph time, which feels about right, but there are few more dramatic ways to achieve that figure.

We pause in Petworth, a few miles north of Goodwood, for photographer Max to take some beauty shots of the Cobra.

I do a few slow circuits of the market town’s narrow, old-school one-way system while he snaps away, but the strident bark from the Cobra’s V8 – no matter how gently I stroke the throttle – seems to be at odds with Petworth’s genteel, antique shop vibe.

But no, not at all, it seems; in fact, quite the opposite.

Instead of being besieged by the local noise police when we park in the town square, a small army of middle-aged, well-to-do shop owners and residents descend upon the Cobra, grins on their faces and phone cameras at the ready, wanting me to explain why it’s so clearly ‘vintage’ yet wears ‘74’ registration plates.

The Goodwood effect is clearly alive and well in these parts.

And Goodwood-bound we are now. I have the rare pleasure of an empty road for most of this part of the trip and really start to gel with the Cobra.

You can’t drive this car with any hint of indifference for fear it will bite you. The steering is prone to kickback but full of feedback through its large, thin-rimmed wheel, and it’s pleasantly high-geared for fast-road work.

Its separate chassis reacts to every surface change, and you’re constantly on the lookout for mid-bend potholes and drain covers that threaten to send the 1950s suspension awry.

But this is the real deal, warts and all. You hang on for dear life but at the same time revel in the Cobra’s brutality and the demands it makes of you as a driver.

Which, if you’ve ever attended Goodwood’s Revival or Members’ Meeting, is why our penultimate stop is at the Motor Circuit.

In more modern times, Cobras have been a thorn in the side of so many Jaguar E-Types and TVR Griffiths that it only seemed right we should pay tribute with a few (loud) runs through its famous tunnel.

We can’t dwell here, though. Our car is needed back at AC’s new works, just down the A27 in Bognor Regis.

It’s the same high-tech factory that will also produce the new Cobra GT Roadster.

But it’s only thanks to the car I’m in right now that it will enjoy the success it undoubtedly deserves.

By Simon Hucknall