Petrolhead Nook – Two Very Particular But Very Completely different Roadsters

As a substitute of displaying you only one automobile and telling you all about why it’s so distinctive or cool, right now’s Petrolhead Nook might be protecting two automobiles. The 2 automobiles in query are constructed by iconic producers, and share some similarities if you’ll. Each are catered in direction of the extra uncovered thrills of motoring. However the similarities mainly finish there, as the 2 automobiles in query are VERY totally different beasts altogether. One is a retro-modern bruiser of a muscle automobile to hoon round corners, and the opposite is a extra conventional seaside cruiser match for the French Riviera. Which of the 2 you want finest, is one thing we’ll fortunately learn within the feedback! Let’s discover out extra in regards to the AC Automobiles Cobra GT Roadster, and the Morgan Plus 4 Spiaggina.

In all equity, pitting these two automobiles head-to-head is a bit odd as they’re fully totally different machines after all. Each are roadsters in a way, and each have 4 wheels and an engine, however that’s just about the place it ends. The 2 couldn’t be additional aside, actually, until one of many two was electrical. They aren’t by the way in which, as we’ll clarify automobile by automobile.

The Shelby Legacy

The Shelby Cobra wants little introduction and is among the automotive trade’s best automobiles ever made. It’s a true American motoring legend, which in the end led to Ford successful the Le Mans 24 hours race 4 years in a row with the GT40! However the story begins within the UK, with an organization known as AC Automobiles. The Cobra really started as the AC Ace, a small and nimble roadster launched in 1953. The earliest automobiles used a quite underwhelming 2-litre straight-4 engine with round 100bhp however engine measurement and energy grew over time. By 1961, a chap known as Carroll Shelby approached AC’s proprietor, Charles Hurlock to place a Ford V8 in one of many light-weight chassis of the AC Ace. And by that, the AC Cobra was born.

The AC Cobra, or the Shelby Cobra because it was identified stateside, was a insurgent. This was a time the place American automobiles have been huge and flamboyant, and never precisely identified for being sharp-handling light-weight GT automobiles. The AC/Shelby Cobra modified that, together with automobiles just like the Corvette primarily. See, Carroll Shelby was a Le Mans-winning racer and an automotive engineer, pressured into retirement because of well being points. With the Cobra, he wished to proceed his ardour for automobiles and racing, and boy did he go away his mark on the trade! By a number of generations, the engine capability and energy of the Corba grew from a 4.2-litre small block V8 with about 260bhp to a 7.0-litre Ford V8 producing near 500 horsepower. This pushed the light-weight roadster (lower than 1,100 kilos with this engine) to a high pace of just about 300 kph!

The story doesn’t finish there although, because the Shelby Cobra was a monster when it went racing as nicely. The mixture of a light-weight European chassis and an enormous and highly effective V8 proved a successful mixture. It gained the GT Class within the 1964 Le Mans 24 Hours race, was tailored into the all-conquering Shelby Daytona Coupe and can be the stepping stone wanted to develop the legendary Ford GT40.

AC Cobra GT Roadster

So what do now we have right here then? Properly, that is mainly a brand-new fashionable interpretation of the enduring roadster by none aside from AC Automobiles, the producer of the unique AC Ace. And that is to be taken a bit frivolously because the AC Automobiles firm was restructured and liquidated a number of occasions because of monetary points. Now although, the corporate is again and has simply offered its newest automobile, the AC Cobra GT Roadster!

This new AC Cobra GT Roadster is a retro-modern tackle the unique idea, and carefully resembles the fashion of the Shelby Cobra 427 (the large 7.0-litre one). However don’t mistake it for an additional equipment automobile based mostly on the unique, as this one is constructed from the bottom up with new tech, new supplies and new energy. The chassis is an aluminium spaceframe, which is draped in a carbon composite shell, full with the well-known flared arches, oval-shaped grille and attribute air consumption. AC Automobiles have acknowledged the automobile might be barely longer and wider than the Cobras that got here earlier than it, but it surely meets all fashionable security requirements. It’s considerably heavier although, as it’s anticipated to tip the dimensions under 1,500 kilos.

However all that additional weight ought to be no problem, actually, because the supercharged 5.0-litre Ford Coyote V8 within the entrance drives roughly 660 horsepower to the rear wheels. Greater than lots to launch it from a standstill to 100kph in beneath 3,5 seconds! The highest pace is alleged to be 278kph, which I really feel is on the conservative aspect contemplating energy to weight.

The inside might be custom-made to every proprietor’s specs however might be way more fashionable than the spartan interiors of early Cobras. It comes with the basic upright windshield as commonplace, however I wouldn’t be shocked when you can go for the very small double and even single small bug catcher windshields (free lunch!). A double roll-hoop protects your dome when you occur to finish up upside-down. Every automobile will value upwards of USD 340,000 when launched in April of this yr.

For extra info, please go to ACCars.eu

Crafted from wooden

Morgan automobiles are identified for 2 issues actually; wooden frames, and old-school design. Whereas that assertion is placing issues a bit too simplistic, it is extremely true in essence. Previous Morgans have been hand-built with ash wooden chassis and to this present day, the method remains to be used to construct automobiles. The corporate has moved on to construct automobiles with extra fashionable methods as nicely, however wooden is all the time on the coronary heart of each Morgan. The styling additionally appeared to have stood nonetheless for Morgan, as its automobiles typically sit on wire wheels, with a nostril part that holds a horseshoe-shaped grille, flared wheel arches and a low upright window. Whereas automobiles just like the Aero 8 and Aeromax channelled a extra fashionable design, with signature styling cues, these automobiles have come all come and gone but the classical Plus 4 and Plus Six have remained.

Beforehand we wrote in regards to the Morgan Three-wheeler, now known as the Tremendous 3, and the very cool CX-T off-roader. The pink line by way of all of those automobiles is a eager sense of heritage designs, respect for craftsmanship and the sense of urgency to make use of fashionable know-how the place wanted. That is primarily right down to engine and transmission set-ups, with the remainder being constructed by hand in true coachbuilding nature. It’s loads like watchmaking in essence, the place manufacturers discover inspiration in classic fashions and references, and produce it again to life utilizing conventional strategies however with fashionable supplies and motion building.

Morgan Plus 4 Spiaggina

This one-of-a-kind Morgan Plus 4 Spiaggina was commissioned by an avid Morgan fanatic from the USA and was accomplished and delivered in 2022 however saved beneath wraps by the corporate till now. The identify Spiaggina interprets to ‘beach-ready’ in Italian, with Spiaggia which means seaside. The fashion could be very harking back to automobiles like the Fiat 500 Jolly, Mini Moke or the Renault 4CV Jolly from the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties. These automobiles had no doorways, material umbrella-like roof constructions, and wicker seats (some, not all), which made them good for a life on and across the seaside. The Morgan Plus 4 Spiaggina captures that very essence, however with just a little up to date twist.

The Plus 4 Spiaggina is predicated upon the platform of the Plus 4, Morgan’s classically styled roadster. The design of the automobile from the entrance bumper up till the windshield is basically unchanged, however from then on backwards it’s a very new automobile. The shopper’s imaginative and prescient was to reconstruct the rear part of the automobile, and the inside for that matter, right into a seaside cruiser like those that have been popularized by film stars and jet setters within the swinging sixties.

The rear of the automobile not has a standard fold-down tender high, however a hard and fast cover mounted on a teak wood body (it’s Morgan in spite of everything). The 2 sides of the white roof can fold open to make it a bit simpler to get out and in of. The headrests for the again seats are top-mounted on the crossbar of the wood construction, a cool little contact. The again part of the physique is minimize away to open up Morgan’s inside as a lot as attainable. The inside is totally rebuilt with the Jolly automobile fashion in thoughts. It comes with tan-coloured leather-based seats, a woven storage internet beneath the dashboard, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and extra. The again seats fold flat and with the trunk lid down it’s changed into a wood deck to retailer your surfboard and such.

The deep blue physique hides a turbocharged two-litre four-cylinder engine from BMW with about 255 horsepower. That makes it fairly a fast automobile, with a zero-to-100kph time of 5.2 seconds and a high pace of 240kph. No want for extra, as that is constructed for cruising across the seaside as an alternative of blasting down the Autobahn. The attractive retro wire wheels improve the laidback retro look of the Spiaggina even additional. There’s no phrase on the worth for such a automobile, however contemplating the quantity of guide labour, I wager it doesn’t come low-cost!

For extra info, please go to Morgan-Motor.com