quote:
Originally posted by Chafford
As often is the case, nothing in life is simple, Jurgen! However, all Mk IVs from 1982 onwards were licensed to use the AC badge and outside the USA, by Ford to use the 'Cobra' moniker (up until June 2002). From 1986, Brian Angliss as AC boss was effectively giving himself permission as Autokraft boss to descibe his cars as 'ACs'.
I think therefore it's accurate in the broad sense to say that your car was built by 'AC'!
Here are a few pictures from my car (AK 1216) which shows a manufacturing date in October 1987, which was from what I understand, after the date by which Brian Angliss acquired the controlling interest in AC from the Hurlock family. The timing of this event (1986) is shown in one of my smaller period brochures from the Company that contains a timeline of events. The Certificate of Origin for my car shows the manufacturer as "A.C. Autokraft".
Interestingly, each sill plate in my car shows the Autokraft logo in the middle, with AC to the left and the "Cobra" symbol to the right. My car was imported directly to the U.S. by the first owner and was not purchased through a U.S. dealer. I understand that the U.S. cars were not allowed to use the "Cobra" trademark, so it is interesting that my car has it! Here is a picture...
In a large multi-page period brochure from Autokraft that I have, a page contains the following statement. Not sure if this sheds light on whether the cars are Autokraft cars or AC cars. I am thinking that up until a certain date, the cars are considered to be made by Autokraft but called the A.C. Mk IV.
"Autokraft Limited is a totally independent privately owned British Company, incorporated in 1977 occupying its own recently constructed Freehold factory premises of some 33,000 square feet. The building is sited on four acres of land within the historic motor racing circuit of Brooklands in Surrey and is part of an overall Freehold factory area of 90,000 square feet which is shared with A.C. Cars Limited."
"Brian Angliss is the majority Shareholder in Autokraft who, in turn, are major Shareholders in A.C. Cars. Brian Angliss is also the Managing Director of both Autokraft and A.C. Cars. Autokraft's principle activity has, for the past fourteen years, been the manufacture of two improved and updated versions of the original 1968 A.C. Cobra - the A.C. Mk IV High Output and the Lightweight versions."
I believe the large multipage Autokraft brochure is from 1990, after my car was made. The timeline in another, smaller period brochure I have, shows that AC Cars moved to its new factory in 1988 and that the lightweight version of the MK IV was introduced in 1990. As the "Lightweight" is referenced in my large brochure, this leads me to believe that the large Autokraft brochure is from 1990. The smaller brochure with the timeline has no reference to Autokraft at all...only AC Cars Limited. The last timeline date in this particular brochure is 1992, thus this is likely when this smaller brochure was made. The 1992 timeline date references Brian Angliss' purchase of Ford's interest in AC Cars Limited, thus perhaps it is in 1992 that the cars were "officially" manufactured by AC Cars Limited vs. Autokraft? Not sure. I have the smaller brochure scanned into a PDF file. If anyone is interested, please email me and I can attach and send a copy.