ACR Stryker
Had the classic AC Cobra been conceived today, it probably would have looked something like the V8-powered muscle roadster you see here. This is the ACR Stryker, a uniquely Australian interpretation of the Cobra of the future.
The new Aussie designed-and-made Cobra inspired roadster, with Falcon FG running gear
You can no longer buy a new Falcon XR8. But you can buy a second-hand one – and turn it into a lightweight AC Cobrastyle two-seater roadster. That’s the essence of an exciting new Australian-made sports car from ACR Industries. The body/chassis unit comes from ACR ready for you to add the Ford mechanicals. And by Ford mechanicals, we mean the lot: the entire drivetrain – engine, transmission and rear axle assembly – front and rear suspension, front and rear brakes, the dashboard module and all the related computer electronics you get in an FGmodel Falcon. The ACR Stryker will even accept the standard Falcon air conditioning.
“In theory,” says Steve Seretis, one of the key men behind the ACR Stryker, “you could have a car rolling in three hours.”
Theory is ne, but the point Seretis makes is that building an ACR Stryker is about as simple as it could possibly be for a car such as this. Consider the fact that this is not an old-style breglass kit car that requires extensive fabrication on the part of the builder. The body/chassis unit – in this case, an aluminium monocoque structure encased in the breglass outer body shell – comes complete and already assembled with the doors, bonnet and bootlid already swung and tted, and correctly gapped.
The ACR Stryker has been some ve years in the making. Seretis got the idea when he saw a design concept drawing of a small V8powered roadster – one American automotive stylist’s interpretation of the classic Cobra in a contemporary context. Seretis himself is something of a Cobra a cionado: he owns a ’64 Cobra as well as the ‘futuristic’ 2004 Concept Cobra.
“The design drawing of the new-age Cobra gave me the idea and we took it from there. I saw the picture and thought, if we change this and change that, tweak it here and there, it will look pretty tough. I thought to myself, I’ve got make one of those!”
Once he’d settled on the design, Seretis engaged veteran breglass kit car maker Dennis Bedford to help out.
“I spoke to Dennis about it as he’s been in the business for a long time. He told me it would take a bit of money to do it, so I got together with a few other car nuts and, here we are.”
It took about a year to get the body shape nalised, and the chassis jigs and the moulds made. Putting the rst car together and ironing out all the bugs (in what was effectively the prototype Stryker) took another 18 months. Now they are at the selling stage, ready to go.
Interestingly, no less than three different Ford engines have been used in the ve Strykers built to date. The Peter Taplin car (see breakout) is powered by the XR8’s 5.4-litre Boss V8, but Seretis’ own car is tted with the 5.0-litre Coyote V8 from the Mustang. Another uses the in-line six.
“You can t any combination of Ford motors,” Seretis points out, adding that while they haven’t tried it, there probably isn’t any reason it wouldn’t take an LS-series Chev V8 – although doing that would negate the advantage of the ‘plug and play’ aspect of a car designed speci cally around Ford Falcon running gear.
As an example of that, the Stryker has been designed in such a way that the standard Falcon FG fuel lines and brake lines just go straight in – no modi cation required. Likewise with the standard Falcon exhaust system, at least up until catalytic converters. A little fabrication work at the local exhaust shop is required to complete the exhaust system to the rear of the car. Then again, many buyers will likely opt for their own bespoke set of extractors to optimise both performance and the ‘listening experience’…
ACR speci es the FG model – any FG model, basically; as can be seen with one example already up and running with the 4.0-litre straight
six – for the donor car. The earlier BA/BF series can be used, except for the fact that the Stryker is designed around the later model FG front end. But the possibility of being able to use some parts from the older (and therefore cheaper) BA/ BF creates options to potentially save on the build costs.
“How much it costs you to put a car together will always depend on how much you pay for the mechanicals,” Seretis explains. “The Falcon I bought when I did my car cost me $7000, but you could pay more than that – or less, depending on what you bought.”
Seretis says they haven’t done any meaningful performance analysis of the Stryker yet. Suffice to say that the numbers present what you might call a compelling case. With a conservative 370kW for the stock 5.0-litre V8 in a car that tips the scales at just 1350kg, as Seretis says, ‘it gets up and goes.’
“I want to put it on the track to see how it goes. I think it’d be pretty good. It’s very well balanced in terms of weight distribution: there’s a wheel on every corner with no overhang. There’s about 100kg more weight to the front than the back, but that’s without the driver, so it balances out at close to 50/50 weight distribution.”
The Stryker is designed to take the regular Falcon wheels in their requisite off-set. No doubt, though, this is one area where customers might seek to individualise their Stryker. Seretis’ own car is tted with the 20-inch wheels that came with the donor car. One area in which he has departed from Ford componentry, though, is the seats. The car will accept Falcon seats, but it’s a tight squeeze.
“They’ll t, provided you used at door trims,” Seretis says. “I’ve tted MX5 seats to mine and it’s a much better solution.”
A mere $25,000 for the chassis/body kit, ready to accept the Ford componentry, is pretty good value for something that not only offers enormous performance, but is unique in terms of its design and style – a home-grown reimagined Cobra-type sports car.
On top of all that, it’s a good way of recycling old Falcons!
Stryke one
Peter Taplin came to purchase his ACR Stryker through his friendship with Dennis Bedford. He’d already built one of Bedford’s kit cars, the Silverstone Roadster, and was intrigued by the idea of the Stryker.
“A guy in America drew it up as a modern interpretation of a Cobra,” Taplin says. “As far as I know, he put it to Ford as a potential model to build but they didn’t pick it up.
“Then the guys in Melbourne took it on, and changed it a bit.You can see the echoes of the original Cobra in it, but it does look genuinely new and different.”
In addition to going to some lengths to individualise his Stryker, Taplin didn’t spare the expense with the build. His donor car was a 2010 Falcon XR8 with 88,000km on the clock. He actually drove it as his road car for three months before he stripped it to build the Stryker!
But then as Peter points out, driving the
XR8 around for a while ensured that he had a pretty good idea of which components did and did not need attention before they went into the Stryker.
“I could have done it cheaper but I wanted to do it right. I could have bought a wrecked Falcon or even individual parts from a wrecker, and that would have been a fair bit cheaper, but I preferred to know what I had when I was building it.
“I think they (ACR Industries) have done an incredible job with it. With the wiring and electronics straight out of the Falcon, including the dash and instruments, it’s got ABS, traction control – all of the modern things you get with a Falcon.
“Even the standard XR8 radiator ts. My car has also got the Ford air conditioning – I had to do a lot of work, ipped it on the inside to make it t. It was a challenge but it works.”
Peter opted for distinctive aftermarket 20-inch wheels to give his car a different look. They’re 7.5-inch front and ‘9.5-inch rears, running 245 and 295 rubber respectively. Peter also had his own cold air box and extractor exhaust system made for the car.
Further differentiating the look of Peter’s car are the headlights: they’re from a Holden Astra!
“The headlight which it came with it just didn’t look right to me. I wanted it to look like a production car, so I put a lot of time into adapting it for those headlights.”
Peter’s was the rst Stryker to hit the streets, in 2018. With the 5.4-litre Boss V8 engine tted, and slightly tweaked with the intake and exhaust, it is, as Peter says, ‘a seriously quick car.’
While he never put it to the test, Peter reckons it’d probably do the standing 400 metres in low 11s – maybe even high 10s. That is ‘seriously quick.’