AC COBRA MKIV
Year of manufacture 1987 Recorded mileage 49,364 Asking price £130,000 Vendor DM Historics, near Tonbridge, Kent; tel: 01732 440494; www.dmhistorics.com
WHEN IT WAS NEW Price £50,000 Max power 225bhp Max torque 300lb ft 0-60mph 5.5 secs Top speed 134mph Mpg 21
This Autokraft-built Cobra is an old friend – it was once historic racer Sam Smart’s, registered SAM 87, and competed all over Europe. It retains the high-spec 351 motor originally rated at 440bhp, and which has a box file of specs and dimensions all to itself, but has been toned down a little with a 650cfm Holley replacing the racing carb, plus extra silencing. Now having had five owners, it’s only covered about 1000 miles in the past six years.
The body is straight, the paint good bar one tiny chip in the boot shut and a small crack at the back of the driver’s door opening. The wheels are unscuffed with a few minor blemishes, the spinners still lockwired and the undated Goodyear Eagles are less than half worn. The wing protectors are slightly polished through and the weather gear looks practically unused. The seats display a nice patina and, as well as the rollbar, it retains ignition cutoffs, Lifeline plumbed extinguisher – though we couldn’t see any nozzles – two dash-mounted stopwatches and it now has conventional seatbelts. It’s also grown a choke control, which makes starting it a bit less fraught.
The engine is clean and tidy, still with various catch tanks, and has no leaks. Coolant is visible in the header tanks, the oil cleanish and near ‘Max’. It remains pretty loud, because there’s a limit to how much exhaust you can physically fit into a Cobra, but it is docile and easy to drive – until 4500rpm when, thanks to the Crane cam, it suddenly wakes up and life becomes very interesting on the old, wooden tyres, especially in the damp. The chassis has a lovely loose-limbed feel, though, and seems to be on your side, even if grip is limited. The rev counter runs to 7000 and there’s no redline.
The clutch has a long travel, so you have to push it right to the floor to disengage properly, but with that programmed in the gearchange works well, while the brakes pull up smooth and straight. Coolant temperature is 75ºc with oil pressure 55psi at 3000rpm, and voltmeter steady at 12.5. The Cobra will come with four boxes of history, including all its race results, handbook, spare keys, that big carb and an MOT until August.