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It has a Bristol engine at a guess, so let's say a Cooper T22/25. There are lots of alternatives as they all look very similar e.g. Frazer Nash Mille Miglia, AC Ace Bristol, Warrior Bristol, Lister Bristol, Arnott Bristol and others. 

Wilson

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18 hours ago, stuny said:

I’d be surprised if Wilson doesn’t get this right away. I’ll start it off with British mid to late 1950 s. 

To be fair, the car in the photo is a replica, allegedly better than the original.  Not with a Bristol engine, in fact none of the cars posted so far.

Edited by Perkin
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No takers in twenty four hours:

and not a AC Cobra of any type.

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These AC Ace replicars fairly often used the Rover V8, aluminum engine originally from General Motors, used in their smaller cars, such as Oldsmobile F-85, Buick Skylark, and Pontiac Tempest - I'm guessing your friend's car has this engine, though the next most likely is the Ford 289.  However, the 427 Ford was most common (as in the AC Shelby Cobra Mk IV), which you can quickly recognize by the "leg burner" exhaust system.  289 Ford V8s are the next most common.  In the US there are at least a half dozen companies producing these replicars.  In fact, only < 1000 real Cobras were made by Shelby, but tens of thousands of the replicars exist.  Factory Five Racing seems to make the best, and they've had the Shelby license the longest.  Let's go with that one.

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Stuart, 

I think anyone putting a V8 engine in a true replica Ace is asking for trouble. Even the mark 2 Cobra chassis with the larger 3" ladder tubes is rather flexy. I have driven the prototype 427 Cobra which still used the Mk.2 chassis and it was terrifying. If you had to lift off when coming out of a corner, the whole car would jump about a foot sideways, as the torque flexing the chassis unwound. This is why the Mk.3 uses thicker walled 4" tubing for the main ladder chassis members and I think they are chrome moly tubing. The new chassis was designed by Graham Waite ex Aston Martin. The 427 cars are still not very pleasant to drive. When I was in South Africa, I used to be lent a Lubinsky Mk.5 Cobra with a 6.6L Roush engine with I think around 600 HP. It was not pleasant to drive at all and not nearly as nice as our 1965 Mk.2 289 Cobra. I see packs of these Lubinsky Cobras every day, when I am there, staying in Noordhoek, going over Chapmans Peak Drive or over the hill from Simonstown to Misty Cliffs, which is on their standard route for the "Cobra driving experience". You can spot the white knuckles from the side of the road 😀.

Wilson

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Bill Cosby described his first (and only) drive in a 427 Mk Vi Cobra, saying it terrified him so much he never started it up again

4 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

Stuart, 

I think anyone putting a V8 engine in a true replica Ace is asking for trouble. Even the mark 2 Cobra chassis with the larger 3" ladder tubes is rather flexy. I have driven the prototype 427 Cobra which still used the Mk.2 chassis and it was terrifying. If you had to lift off when coming out of a corner, the whole car would jump about a foot sideways, as the torque flexing the chassis unwound. This is why the Mk.3 uses thicker walled 4" tubing for the main ladder chassis members and I think they are chrome moly tubing. The new chassis was designed by Graham Waite ex Aston Martin. The 427 cars are still not very pleasant to drive. When I was in South Africa, I used to be lent a Lubinsky Mk.5 Cobra with a 6.6L Roush engine with I think around 600 HP. It was not pleasant to drive at all and not nearly as nice as our 1965 Mk.2 289 Cobra. I see packs of these Lubinsky Cobras every day, when I am there, staying in Noordhoek, going over Chapmans Peak Drive or over the hill from Simonstown to Misty Cliffs, which is on their standard route for the "Cobra driving experience". You can spot the white knuckles from the side of the road 😀.

Wilson

Bill Cosby described his first (and only) drive in a 427 Mk Vi Cobra, saying it terrified him so much he never started it up again

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I am not sure how we were supposed to detect the maker of yet another Cobra replica. I have seen an estimate that there are 10 times as many replicas as there are originals. In just the UK, I think there are at least 5 different makers of Cobra replicas, from the likes of Gardner Douglas, Dax, XCS, AK, Pilgrim and probably others. I have seen some truly nasty ones built from low grade square mild steel tubing, that I suspect are death traps to drive. When I tell folks that our 1965 one is a real Cobra made by AC in Thames Ditton while still owned by the Hurley family, so a true AC Cobra rather than a Shelby Cobra made in Texas, they usually don't quite understand. They think they are all replicas. Ours has 72 spoke centre lock Borrani alloy rim wire wheels. 

Wilson

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28 minutes ago, stuny said:

In the US alone there are at least a half dozen firms making them, some exceptionally good, such as Factory Five Racing.

And of course, Alan Lubinsky in South Africa still making the official AC Mk.5 Cobras as he bought the rights to the AC brand, although I am not sure he is allowed to call them Cobras, as that trademark would belong to the Shelby Trust. There is some talk about a resurrected Autocraft in the UK, making alloy bodied Mk.4 Cobras again. I have driven an Autocraft AC Mk.4 made in the 1980's and it was pretty much identical to an original, as the friend who was the owner, had not made the mistake of putting too big an engine in it and had gone for a Ford 289, which has the merit of being light for the 4.7 litre size, due to Ford's thinwall casting techniques. We have replaced the "rock crusher" four speed box in ours with a 5 speed Tremec. 

Willson

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18 hours ago, Perkin said:

Time is up.  The car is a Robnell Special...

...and the pertinent clues which would have allowed us to work out the manufacturer's name of this one specific Cobra Replica being a "Robnell Special" as opposed to any other Cobra Replica manufacturer - whether Mainstream or Backstreet - were?......what exactly?

I suspect you are not yet understanding quite how the concept of the 'Mystery Cars' question as embodied in this quiz-based thread evolves. It isn't a 'Post a Photo of a Car So Obscure such that No-one Could Possibly Know What It Is and I Win!' sort of situation. The whole idea is that someone will be able to know / name the car.

Subsequent Clue Crops (if neccessary) after Original Clue Crop / Hints (if neccessary) after Original Hint until - hopefully - someone comes out with the correct answer. Once someone identifies the car in question then, usually, all is revealed and, usually, we all tend to learn something new and therefore we all win.

Afterwards the baton passes to the person who has correctly identified the car to post the next 'puzzle' and it starts again...

Philip.

Edited by pippy
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Here is your next one. A rare car where I have only ever seen one and that was at the Autosport show many years ago. Usual required make and model although year less important, as only made for a couple of years. 

Wilson

 

 

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