Messages

Dear SJ 351, thank you for your very detailed attack on the advertisment for my car, it was very much appreciated and enjoyed. While some of the finer points in your response add more needed detail, some sound very bitter...sorry, my observation.
   I think you entirely missed the point, which most of the other members completely got.
   Flying Horse...There was no cheap shots intended at the documented repaired car, as i recommended the repairer, and the job completed was astounding. Any owner who damaged his car could not have wished for better and until that point, CRS owners had no repair facility available.
   So SJ352, if you are so unhappy by the advertisment, why don't you phone me personally to discuss it? rather then posting without a name.
   Alan Faulkner-Stevens

I still have the master pattern to produce "fastback" style hard-tops if any owner needs one. Custom fitted to your individual car, so perfect fit. Highest quality top which uses all factory positions for easy, no modification, location.

I am very interested by your factual innacuracies in the write up. Would you please let us know what they are?
   thank you

I contacted the dealer about the MkII car and posed some questions to him. Was it constructed by Superformance in South Africa, yes. Was it prepared for sale and registration in the UK with a Legal engine and then IVA'd, yes. Was it then badged AC, yes.
   But i believe the car advertised was actually sold as i was told there was a wait for one of three to four months.

The comment about power being less on an EFI engine in comparison to a carb engine was interesting. I believe the Factory SVO conversion offered and often fitted into Lightweights, but not always, with its uprated cylinder heads, camshaft and big Holley car was rated at 345hp. Peter Knight has dyno tested at least two original SVO spec motors at his premises, neither broke the 300hp level. Power output, that is a very subjective thing.

Because of the hype around "Lightweight" cars, i think the interest about the definitive numbers will continue. All i can say in addition to what i have already stated is this, the cars i have shown in the on-line list the information comes from three places. Firstly, the copy of the AC Build book the Club holds, secondly, notations against a chassis number made my previous Registrars and thirdly, from the photographic records of the cars the Registry is slowly building.
   Again i state, the Lightweight, is a MkIV variant, a version based upon a basic format and which varied dependent upon the Country it was being sold into.
   The standard MkIV long-nose is the car from which a Lightweight is derived, it is also mostly certified and legal for sale in the Countries where it was built for. It is the Lightweights early shape and lesser specification that seems to appeal, however the early CRS models have the same bodyshape as a Lightweight, as the body of one was used for the buck when the Carbon was laid up.
   However, things are never clear with the Cobra, as there are three variants of the CRS body shape, all subtle in difference but different never the less. To add another oddity into the mix, perhaps we could discuss all the early build CRS cars, year 1999/2000 manufacture, having 302 engines produced in 1994.
   It still comes down to this, a low volume car manufacturer would sell what ever the customer wanted, as he had the ability to change the cars to meet any requirement/request, body-shape, colour, engine, trim.
   For this reason alone, until the Club has photographs and details of every MkIV built, things will change.

For use in my workshop, especially on later AC Products, much of the wiring items you need can be brought from Vehicle Wiring Products. I'm sure they are in Derbyshire. If you cannot find the number, please leave another post and i'll find it from their catalogue.

Based upon my experience of the Lightweight, which is always improving as i see and inspect more cars, there does not appear to be a definitive specification. There is a basic spec. vehicle, from which a original owner may wish to have their car built, much of which is discussed in earlier posts, however dependent upon where the car was to be sold the car when new, it would have to be a minimum Certified Specification, for that Country. This is the problem, if you look at the manufacturing date of the cars they often do not meet the Certification criteria. I know of early UK Lightweights, being sold as a Kit of Parts, to get around UK certification requirements. Engines and lighting fittings do not meet the required laws, not always but often. Later cars, sold into different Countries have many Lightweight features, but carry an EFI engine to meet a that Countries emission requirements.
   Seat head-rests may have been fitted, and things such as hazard flashers all may have been required by Law to allow a new car to be sold in that Country.
   So, based upon my experience there are alot more than 26 cars, for some people these later produced cars may not be true Lightweights, i disagree. They are Lightweight variants, based upon a basic Factory build specification.

In my experience i have found a slight fit problem with the drivers side LHD inner front wing, which i believe may be from build differences. This manifests itself with the outer/upper edge of fibreglass inner wing flange not following the shape of the inside of the aluminium outer wing correctly. Even with the sealing rubber attached to the fibreglass edge, it did not seal against the aluminium cleanly. To improve this, i felt the inner-wing panel needed to fit further into the car, thus improving the relationship of the two surfaces to each other, but by doing this it closed the gap between the intermediate steering shaft and the panel. Hence, improving the fibreglass relief around the column. As to the early conversion, i have always been reasonably happy with the column height, basically because of its exit position from the dash panel not really giving a great scope for change. However of removal of the Ford switchgear column for replacement with the early style simple column, as supplied, i found the column outer tube end struck the accelerator pedal, the simple upper fixing was not good enough to support the column tube safely, so an extensive lower bracket needed designing and fitting. Finally, because of the cars original set-up the inner spline shaft didn't work in the new configuration, requiring the design and manufacture of a completely new inner shaft.
   As to why a standard early RHD specified column assembly wouldn't properly fit the LHD i cannot truely say. I suspect variances between the cars, manufacturing changes as the model progressed, and a number of small detail changes that you are always likely to find on a small volume hand built car.

I think the relationship between the Club and the owners of the AC brand has not been good for some time. In the past some members visited the MkV production Malta Factory and produced a great write up about it and have produced many nice editorial pages on the MkVI. However, despite what was a series of very generous write ups about these vehicles i feel we have been treated awfully. To have the Logo taken away from the Club was the best way of saying to Members, we really don't think much of you or your value to the brand. I did ask the previous Chairman about getting some of the original Factory build information for the MkIV Registry from the brand holders, but was told this would never happen. Of course, i may have not helped smooth the way here as i have have publically critised the build quality of the MkV ,shocking, and the shape of the MkVI, odd. I have also had quite strong disagreements with both John Owen and AC Heritage over problems with the CRS Suspension tower failure and the treatment of Lee Arganese and his damaged CRS. But fundamentally i am here to support Club members and if i have to use my engineering background, training and experience to stand up for an important point, i will. For any member this may have made getting information a little difficult for, i apologise. Despite this lack of help from some quarters, it strikes me from reading this forum, most members can get 95% of all the advice and help they need from the superb members around the globe and i thank you all for it.

First delivery planned into Switzerland eh?? well, that will be interesting after i've just helped one of my clients get the only CRS Cobra into the Country and pass all the conformity and legality tests. At least the CRS has a 49State Legal USA engine in it and it was still with the emissions testing station about three months.

While it is nice to hear of the latest work of Mr. Gray in keeping upto date details of the MkIV cars constructed by Autokraft, i just wanted to let Club members know that i and previous Club Registrars have been doing the same thing for many years. Due to the very limited information listed in the copy of the AC Build book the Club holds, with the help of the very informative members, it is the Club who has a great deal of information about individual cars, including detailed photographs. It is true however, the Club does not hold all the information about some cars, hence my suggestion to contact AC's Heritage department to see if they were prepared or able to release anything else.
   Ultimately, the Registry of information is to help Club members, perhaps respond to an important question about a specific vehicle should it arise and just to try to sort the wheat from the chaff in the future.
   To make the very best Registry, if the owners of the AC brand would be prepared to lend the Club its individual build records, all the information we hold along with each cars actual build spec could be incorporated into a Shelby American style registry, which has always been my hope.

In response to your post, you are quite correct our view points come from different positions and experiences and will, i suspect never meet. However, i will make you a direct offer, come to my workshop and inspect in detail a late build Lightweight MkIV Cobra and i will show you how its build directly relates back to the 427 cars of the 60's, well beyond 1982 when Autokraft started. From there we can look at my CRS and i can show how the blood line is still there in that car, despite the change of body material. I can prove my view point and am prepared to stand behind all i say.

So, the National event had a section for the non UK built cars did it, how interesting. It appears there has been a senior change of view on the matter. Whether that is good or bad for this Club is the decision of the Council members. However, it doesn't change the true facts, the MkV has the most dreadful build quality and the MkVI has no direct link to any Cobra variant build before.
   I am one of those Club members who has direct working experience of both the early 60's build cars, the high quality MkIV build vehicles and the poorer quality later cars, although this said i understand the MkVI is getting much better, build wise. Thus, when i write upon this forum i do so from direct experience and as such find some comments from other contributors to be sadly lacking in both fact and objective view point.

Gentlemen, having the read the latest batch of comments about what constitutes a real AC, or not as the case may be, here is my ten pence worth. Firstly, however, a comment posted stated the CRS has little in common with the early cars, well what the bloody hell do you know? Do you own such a car? Have you worked on one? As the owner of such a vehicle, someone who has worked on early Cobras and has completed total nut and bolt rebuilds on MkIV cars, there IS a direct link, blood line, what ever you wish to call it, between the very first cars and the very last English built cars. Suspension/chassis construction/engine type/configuration/body shape, its all there from early to late and they were all built in the UK.
   When the first brand new MkV cars turned up at Gerry Hawkridges workshop to have his team try to turn them into a saleable/safe/presentable car i raised the question of how the Club would view these toads with the Chairman. He told me the club would be keeping its interest to English built cars and thus, unless something has changed, if its not built in England it doesn't count.For the record, as an ex-Aston Martin engineer, i performed one of the Factory standard critiques on two MkV's at Gerrys premises, the cars were attrocious, badly built/finished/presented, the most shameful thing i have ever seen and i looked at a lot of vehicles in my professional capacity.
   The blood line as it has been called on this site, died with the MkV. The latest version the MkVI has no common features with any English built variant, different chassis/suspension/Chevrolet engine and until i and a couple of other people, who know, critised its very mis-formed oddly shaped front end it didn't even look like an early Cobra. The latest body shape has been greatly enhanced/improved by help from Steve Gray i believe.
   The worst part of this discussion is the owners of the AC name appear to have little care/thought to the owners club, it members and to the cars long continuously developed history. Its line of DNA, as it were, from 39 PH through to the 212 is there, because although these cars are poles apart in the way they were produced they have a common thread running thorough their construction. This link gives the owner of a modern car a direct link to the cars famous forebears, something the non-UK built cars do not have, nor will they ever.
   A final comment, the picture posted of the MkV on this thread, is someone having a joke at our expense? if the bonnet fit of that car gets any worse, you could change the engines plugs with the bonnet shut!!!!