02 Aug 01
A well proportioned coupý, matt blue and strangely familiar, emerges from beneath a dark blue car cover; it is immediately recognisable as the product of the AC stable. As the fabric cover, resplendent with AC insignia, is pulled over the back of the car and falls to the floor, a part of the company's recent past falls with it.
In particular, along with the preview of this new coupý, which we'll come to in a minute, AC is drawing the curtain on the Ace, the car which AC's one-time owner Brian Angliss brought upon the automotive world in 1993. Never convincing against its contemporaries, examples have barely trickled from AC's Weybridge factory. The Aceca four-seat coupý version remains available to special order, but there will not be a queue of customers waiting by the door.
But enough of the old, and in with the, er, old. AC is going back to its roots, with the car pictured here, the Mamba coupý. The Mamba is a snake of the Cobra family, see, and if the Mamba Coupý is reminiscent of anything, it's the Cobra. Shamelessly so, in fact. As softly-spoken senior designer, Ron Saunders, dulcetly uttered at the car's unveiling: 'The Aceca [the 1950s version, not the current model] and Daytona form the basic influence for the Mamba. But AC is about performance, and when you think performance, you think Cobra.'
And so, if performance is what AC is about, then what of the Mamba's credentials? Target weight is 1,250kg. Basic power will be 235bhp, from a 4-litre, straight-six cylinder, Ford Australia petrol powerplant. But for power freaks, Lotus's twin-turbocharged V8, throwing out 350bhp, will also be an option.
The bodyshell, which has lost its trademark prominent front lights in a Morgan Aero 8-esque twist of fate, is made of carbon rather than hand-beaten from aluminium. AC's carbon series of roadsters has widened those cars' appeal (by being significantly cheaper than their aluminium counterparts), and will keep the cost of the Mamba down too.
