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AC Cars, like many British sports car companies, has gone through a rough patch in recent decades.

The famous maker of the AC Cobra has been bought and sold, gone through bankruptcy and only barely manages to survive. And while the company continues to build modern versions of its Cobra, like the AC MkVI, it has also licensed the AC name to an outside sports car maker.

Iconic Motors, a United States-based company founded by Claudio Ballard, a 35-year veteran of the computer industry, has licensed the AC Roadster name for its Iconic AC Roadster, which Iconic said will be introduced in mid-June, with sales beginning later in the summer. The four-year-old company has never made a car before.

The Iconic AC Roadster has a chassis of steel-alloy tubing bonded to a carbon-fiber tub. It is suspended on unequal-length, aluminum alloy control arms with coil-over damper units front and rear. Its Brembo carbon ceramic brakes were reportedly engineered specifically for the car.

The body is not just another Cobra clone. Instead, it has the look of a Cobra that has been carved down and manicured, but it is also certainly reminiscent of a classic Cobra.

A one-third-scale model of the roadster was tested in a University of Michigan wind tunnel. Mr. Ballard said that the body generated 500 pounds of downforce at 175 miles an hour, which should keep the 2,400-pound roadster stable without dragging it down.

Power comes from an all-aluminum 7-liter V-8 that was developed by Ernie Elliott, a Nascar engine builder. It reportedly generated 770 horsepower at the rear wheels in a recent test of a prototype vehicle. Iconic claimed that was enough power to sprint from a standstill to 60 M.P.H. in less than three seconds, while topping out at over 200 M.P.H.
A 6-speed gearbox with a two-disc manual clutch provides ratio changes.

All of the machine and assembly work is being handled by Technosports, a Livonia, Mich., company that offers advanced design, prototyping and manufacture of specialty products. Past clients include major automakers and racing teams.

Mr. Ballard said no more than 100 Iconic AC Roadsters would be built, and he said he expected the first production car to be ready in August. It will cost $350,000 to $375,000, depending on equipment.


http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04 ... ss&emc=rss

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Marty Howard
2011 NASA SE Factory Five Challenge Champion
Track Events Logistics Coordinator - TZC/THSCC
2007 Factory Five Challenge Car.
http://www.mh-motorsports.com

$350,000?!?!?!?!?

Seriously? Anyone got any bets on how many actually get sold? I mean every issue or two of Autoweek there's yet another "supercar" type car being built at $250,000 or more. But where are they? Where are the customers for these things? Are any of them getting built?

Seems unlikely. A lot of people like to claim "rich people still got money" and that's true, but the problem is their money isn't making them any money. On top of that, you have the phenomenon I heard the other day from a shop that specializes in, get this, "mansions" for dogs. They sell them for $20-30k. They cited their biggest problem selling them right NOW is that their normal customers don't want to spend that kind of coin on something like that because it makes their "less rich" friends feel bad.

I dunno, this kind of thing just makes me shake my head and wonder. There are so many other things you can do with that same money that seem so much more interesting...even if you're gonna burn it on a car would you buy this or buy a Ferrari that's gonna hold its value for a year or two or three? Because this thing ain't.


--Donnie

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I'd rather have "his and hers" 911 GT3's for my money. . .

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

I read that and that was the end of reading the article. - AB

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Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
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And you'd have a LOT of money left over. I'm with you on that one.


--Donnie

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