[What'saCobra?]

Some years ago Angliss retired to the AusZel area, rather quietly. i had always presumed the several large shipments were his household effects and perhaps a few of the rather remarkable historic motorcycles he had retained from the failure of AC when Price Waterhouse were named the receivers.

i do seem to recall several unusally braced 289 chassis during one of many visits to AC in the very early nineties, though i may be mistaken. Subsequently, i did arrange the completion and sale of the last 289 on the original 289 chassis (verified in the AC Registration Log), but cannot recall for sure if it had the braced transmission tunnel in the build, because it was the "jig chassis". That chassis was used for many years as the test device for verifying that the construction jig had remained true to the original dimensions during various builds, until BA agreed to sell it to us. (This, despite the fact that the bodies were not at all equal from side to side and then some.)

i did think it odd at the time that he would finally sell his test chassis. i should have asked if he had made any spare chassis. At the time, there was not the interest that exists today in continuation or completion series from AC, and Shelby had completely abandoned the Cobra brand forever (and rather happily at that, according to him at the time). It was still possible to have BA build you whatever you wanted, in whichever flavor, which we did frequently; so who would have bothered with extra chassis at the time? i certainly didn't. Unfortunately.

Given that he is in the general area, i would still be surprised if he would be associated with some sort of re-start or continuation. Someone local might want to review any "AC" registrations in the area as a start.

Perhaps there has been some sort of rapproachement between him and Mr. L regarding the use of the AC name, at least in the local area. L likely needs plenty of fresh with which to attract more pigeons.

For that matter, CS is certainly interested so far in arranging for more continuations of his own lines, given the CSX 1000's, 4000's, 5000's, 6000's, 7000's and perhaps more in the queue. CS just might be interested in a line of Daytonas, particularly if they were AC "sourced" in some reasonable fashion, but this is just a guess about something of which i have no real knowledge. While i am confident that CS would not participate in anything that would be a mis-representation, given his current success and "old histories", a reasonable arrangement would probably at least be considered.

CS was involved with a re-body program of original 289 street cars, which were modified into Daytonas, retaining their original CSX 2XXX serial numbers and registrations. This was at a time that 289's were relatively cheap at something under 100K USD at the time. Most folks kept their roadster equipment. i cannot recall how many were re-bodied, but perhaps others here can recall better.

i would think some sort of similar arrangement (with newer chassis) would command a significant historical interest as well as a practical race car source under the newer FIA historical-type documentation, rather than having to be the actual historical car from the original dates.

If anyone in the NewAus area does locate any 289 chassis from any genuine continuation series, several of us certainly would like to participate. But, perhaps the whole thing might not happen that way. A more logical series might go to individuals with big bucks on a onesey-twosey basis, rather than a big publicity splash.