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AC COBRA MKIV LIGHTWEIGHT Year of manufacture 1991 Recorded mileage 8886 Asking price £175,000 Vendor Redline, Surrey; tel: 01932 875435; www.redlineclassiccars.co.uk
WHEN IT WAS NEW Price £115,000 Max power 350bhp Max torque 360lb ft 0-60mph 5.2 secs Top speed 134mph Mpg 22.1
One of the first 26 (of 73) Lightweight MKIVS built by Autokraft between 1990 and ’92, this car spent its early life in Japan, returning in 2009. Thunder Road and Redline have looked after it since, with Redline adding the older-style dash (which liberates more room inside). Other than that, it remains very original, still with its factory Rolls-royce Graphite Grey paint, which looks good but closer up has cracking on the bonnet and rear deck, plus a chunk missing from the rear corner of the bonnet aperture. The wheels are lightly blemished in a couple of places, shod with Avon ZZS with lots of tread (and a matching, unused, 2008-dated spare). In the boot there’s a full set of weather equipment, as-new and still with the car’s serial number crayoned into the bag. Underneath, it’s all clean and unscuffed, the original exhaust system still managing to look almost new, plus there are Redline’s own anti-roll bars with poly mounts.
Inside, the seat leather is just starting to patinate gently, the carpets aren’t worn and there are harnesses, Perspex sunvisors, glass wind wings and a chrome driver’s-side roll bar. The heater controls are hidden away under the dash.
The motor is tidy and leak-free, and was dyno tested by Thunder Road in 2009 at 288bhp at the wheels, corrected to 356bhp at the flywheel at 5300rpm (regular MKIVS were 250-320bhp, on fuel injection). It’s just been serviced, so the fluids are clean, and it starts easily with only a couple of spits through the air filter. On the road it’s well-behaved, easy to operate and tractable, though of course plant it on a straight and it’ll try to pull your ears off. The chassis is comfortable and clonk-free, and the brakes are smooth and pull up straight. The synchros all work well in the Borg-warner T5 ’box, but you still blip it because the noise is so sublime – though heel-and-toeing is hard even for a 5ft 8in driver because the long clutch forces you to sit quite close, when the steering-wheel rim gets in the way of your right thigh. Oil pressure is 55-60psi at 3000rpm and above, with temperature steady at just under 80ºc. It will be sold with a good history file, including lots of bills for fettling, plus a new MOT.