AC Cars to build polarising run of new 1963 Cobra LeMans racers

By: Alex Affat, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 04.11.2020

A historic racing car powered by the future: the great V8s in these cars will be replaced by battery packs – and they’ll cost $1 million.

Historic British auto makers AC Cars, makers of the Ace which lead to the original Shelby Cobra, are one of the cornerstone brands in the global Cobra-replica industry. Already producing a range of exacting replicas and ‘continuation’ cars, the firm recently announced its intentions to build a batch of recreations that closely mimic its 1963 Le Mans 24hr competitors.

Except, the 12 new vehicles won’t be powered by a Ford small-block 283 but will instead be fitted with a 54-kwh battery pack which they claim to produce 460kW of power, 1000Nm of torque, and about 190km of range.

AC Cars is already producing a range of ‘Cobra Series 1 Electric’ models however the new LeMans-inspired cars come in with approximately double the power and torque.

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The bodies are built to exacting original specifications, beaten by hand by AC Heritage in Surrey, UK. Just 12 new cars will be produced, six representing the green "39 PH" car, and six mimicking the white "645 CGT" car. One of the most distinguishing features is the included aluminium hardtop that was developed to aid aerodynamics and improve their top speed down the Mulsanne Straight.  

All cars will receive a new and unique VIN prefix ensuring they are clearly identified as modern recreations; however, they will also be blessed with continuing AC VIN numbers in sequence with the firm’s original builds.

The new AC Cobra 1963 Le Mans cars will cost £600,000 + VAT, which equates to around AU$1.1 million.

But understandably, if that’s not your jam, AC Cars also produce Cobra recreations powered by Ford’s 2.3lt Ecoboost four-cylinder and a GM-produced Chevrolet 6.2lt LSA V8.

We'd think that the original 283 would be just fine oursevles.

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