One to Buy: ex-Julian Moulton 1965 AC Cobra 289
/
In addition to the revered Shelby Cobras, AC Cars in Great Britain, who had done much development work and still handled the lion’s share of the assembly process, sold Cobras destined for the domestic and European market under the AC name.
Other than AC instead of Shelby-type badges and different VIN prefixes, these Cobras were essentially identical to those sold on the other side of the Atlantic.
For the 289 cubic-inch version, a 4.7-litre 271bhp small block High Performance Ford V8 hooked up to a four-speed manual Borg-Warner transmission was dropped into tubular steel chassis with leaf spring suspension, disc brakes all round and 72-spoke Dunlop wire wheels. The rolling chassis was draped in a lightweight aluminium body equipped with a full complement of road trim to include a folding canvas roof.
In total, just 62 examples of the AC-badged Cobra 289 were built between 1963 and ‘66, one of which is currently on offer at the Fiskens’ showroom in London.
Chassis COB 6038 was supplied via Guy Salmon Ltd. to its first owner, Julian Moulton of London, on September 1st 1965. Configured in the fetching colour scheme of White with Black upholstery, COB 6038 (one of 45 right-hand drive examples built) was registered DLO 100C and used exclusively as a fast road car.
Having been restored to its 1965 trim back in 2001 (at which point the original Autolite four-barrel carb was replaced with a set of Weber 48 IDAs), COB 6038 has since been used on a variety of historic touring-style events, during which time it has developed a pleasing patina.
