FIA AC Cobra Race Car

Specifications

Price	£365,000
Colour	Guardsman Blue & White Stripes
Engine Block	Mathwall 289ci V8
Driver Position	Left Hand Drive
HTP papers	Expiry December 2035

Vehicle Summary

Description

A joint venture between Alan Mann Racing and touring car and sportcar legend Steve Soper, this AC Cobra has been built with only one thing in mind: to be the most competitive Cobra around. A huge amount of man hours has been spent on making, what we believe to be, the lightest Cobra around – weighing in with all oils and fluids at 934kg.

Fitted with a Mathwall race engine with dyno sheet showing 476hp, but with a huge torque band, running on the latest trick exhaust design in stainless steel. Prepared and set up by renowned Cobra engineer and expert, Lee Lapihuska of Alan Mann Racing.

Bag tank fuel cell, lightweight wiring loom, lightweight carbon fibre Tillett racing seat, alloy radiator, Crosthwaite & Gardiner magnesium wheels, gripper LSD, heated front screen, lightweight electronic trigger fire extinguisher, electronic master cut-out switch, TRS FIA magnum 6-point lightweight harness, tell tale rev counter, MSD box. It also boasts an Alan Mann chassis no, (AMR – 65 – 001) and finished in the classic Cobra colours of Guardsman blue with white stripes.

Some photos of the 1965 RAC TT and original Alan Mann Racing memorabilia from the race can be included with the car if they are of interest.

This is a brand new car with all new parts which also has fantastic attention to detail. The car has only done one shakedown and one test and is ready to race, being hugely competitive.

Please note: the “AMR 65” plate shown in the photos is only for show. The car is not road registered and the VRM “AMR 65” is NOT included in the sale.

The car is ready to view at Alan Mann Racing, located at Fairoaks Airport in Surrey, England. Please contact Henry Mann at Alan Mann Racing on +44 (0) 1276 402299 or email henry@alanmann.co.uk

History
The car is a tribute to the Shelby Works Cobra Roadster CSX2345, which Sir John Whitmore drove for Alan Mann Racing in 1965. In that year, Shelby American and Alan Mann Racing worked together to secure the GT Manufacturers’ Championship (part of the World Sportscar Championship) for Ford Motor Company, with Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupes and the Cobra Roadsters. Shelby America ran the cars at the US rounds, and Alan Mann Racing ran them at Europe rounds – including 500km of Spa-Francorchamps, International ADAC 1000km race at Nurburgring, 12 Hours of Reims, as well as 24 Hours of Le Mans.

However, the most memorable victory of the season was at Oulton Park in the RAC International Tourist Trophy on 1st May 1965. It was a two part race, run on aggregate; during the first race, Whitmore won but was gassed by a broken exhaust and fell out of the car at the end. While resting in the medical tent on oxygen between the races, Team Manager Alan Mann, came in and persuaded Whitmore that they could win. The main opposition in their class was Peter Sutcliffe’s Ferrari and he was able to lap at very nearly the same speed as the #21 Cobra Roadster. With Peter well aware of the need to refuel, Alan Mann suspected he would be happy to stay somewhere near to John, cruising ahead when the Cobra had to make its late stop. Mann and Whitmore kept the plan between themselves. John would get a pit signal telling him to do stop and the mechanics would get everything ready, but John was instructed to ignore that signal. Just one confident, knowing smile from any one of the crew members would give the game away to any observant rival teams in the pit road.

During the race all went to plan: everyone assumed Whitmore was ignoring the signals because he was still gassed. Ferrari were caught napping, and Whitmore took maximum points towards the Championship. Only just, because he ran out of fuel on the cool-down lap…

It was the race that both Alan Mann and Sir John Whitmore considered the best of their careers, so this car is a fitting tribute.