It’s 1.98m across the body but only 4.23m long, with a 2.57m wheelbase. For what it’s worth, I think it looks terrific, just short of caricature, almost as if AC had never stopped developing the Cobra – and crucially, given how many makers of replicas there are, it won’t be mistaken for one of those.
Beneath is a mostly extruded aluminium chassis, but the body is carbonfibre, courtesy of a Sussex-based composites company that AC recently bought, and this is where I find my test car – the only prototype in the UK.
Most of the development work is taking place in Germany. The layout is as traditional as you might expect (and perhaps hope): there’s an engine in the front – a 5.0-litre Ford V8 with or without a supercharger – driving the rear axle.
The gearbox is either a Tremec six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic.
In naturally aspirated form, it makes 454bhp and 420lb ft of torque; when supercharged, as this prototype is, it makes 654bhp and 575lb ft.
Suspension is by double wishbones all around, with pushrods at the front. There’s a limited-slip rear differential on the atmo car or a Torsen diff on the blown car.
Again depending on the version, the tyres are 275/35 R21s at the front and 325/30 R21s at the back or narrower items on 19in wheels.
The Cobra GT Roadster will be small-series type-approved, which means it can be sold just about everywhere.
But this being a working prototype, as yet there’s no anti-lock braking or brake servo, the power steering is on full assist mode, there are no anti-roll bars and it wears trade plates.
There’s work to do, in other words, before deliveries start late next year.
But despite AC’s fears about how closely we point cameras at it, I’ve seen complete cars that aren’t so well finished as this working prototype.
