quote:
Originally posted by Emmanueld
Emmanuel
Emmanuel,
[What a revelation a simple Google Search will reveal, this forum to me this morning...]
Anyway, I can vouch for CF 7 which was [according to AC] was the factory test/loaner car for several years:
CF7 was a car I found for my father in the mid 1970's in London [despite being 14 and in the MidWest USA at the time] and my sister and I now own it since our parent's have passed.
I know from correspondence with AC back in the 1970's that in the late 1960's/early 1970's two AC 428's were allowed into the US under some sort of special waver to get around DOT and EPA regulations [God how I LOATHE the EPA!] and two other cars were allowed into Canada under similar circumstances.
The numbers for these four cars were 27 and 29 and 28 and 30 (I'm not sure which country got which pair.
My family and I did get to see one of the Canadian cars, a Left Hand Drive Gray coupe in Oakville Ontario (a Suburb of Toronto) in the spring of 1976 or 1977 as it was being offered for sale. My father was very interested in importing it as it was LHD (Vs. the RHD of CF7). However, when we contacted the EPA/DOT/Customs officials to see what could be done to import the car, Customs and DOT were reasonably amenable but the EPA was downright rude, nasty and belligerent. They spelt out via phone in all sorts of graphic detail what kind of modifications would be necessary for the Canadian car to be imported, and the expense and the testing and they said in no uncertain terms that it would not pass their inspection [as if they would make it their mission in life to make sure it would not ever pass]. So we abandoned out attempt to import it. If we had been smart, we would have just driven it over the boarder with the documentation for CF 7 and we probably would have sailed through with no more than a "drive safe" but because we had inquired we figured that they would be alert to that sort of thing.
Incidentally the reason we were able to get CF7 in-country was it was completed on 21 December 1967 making it a '67 model and hence avoiding any DOT, etc. strictures which related to 1968 models.
Ok, back to the Oakville Ontario Coupe. As best I can remember it was gray, (I don't think it was a metallic gray), was LHD and an automatic. It also had a Holley [as opposed to Motorcraft] Carb on it, and I remember believing that it was probably quicker with that carb on it than CF7. It was in very good shape (it was a mover performance wise) but I wouldn't go so far to say it was in excellent or outstanding shape. The owner also had an Accea Coupe that was in a state of disrepair. And this was the Spring of either 1976 or 1977, as best I can remember.
Those are all the details best I can remember, it was a fun trip to Ontario with a less than hoped for outcome. We were very disappointed to not have been able to get that one too.
I have to tell you your BRG roadster is absolutely stunning! And I'm very pleased to see that I'm not the only person who feels these are the valve covers that belong on a AC 428:
... regardless of what they shipped with!
Cheers!
Chuck
