Iconic AC Roadster
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The Iconic AC Roadster isn't just another Cobra replica any more than
Apollo was just another archer. Instead, the roadster, a collaboration
between Michigan base iconic and the latest incarnation of AC cars, hits
familiar Cobra cues while showcasing new technology. The Shelby 427 of
the 1960s offers brutish capability and sometimes evil behaviour in an
evocative shape. Iconic's founder, Claudio Ballard, sought to recreate
the brutishness and evocativeness while banishing the evil. So here 7.0
liters of specially tuned Ford V8 meet a modern race car chassis,
suspension and brakes.
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Some major components are sourced, with Brembo
supplying carbon ceramic rotors, for example, but like the dry sump oil
reservoir and the brake master cylinder are milled from chunks of
aluminum. The body panels are hand crafted. The goal is to make
manufacture something without compromise. The 2400 pounds roadster also
includes patented door hinges, an automatic gas cap and tachometer
needle that changes colors at a different points in the rev band. As the
signature touch, twelve points nuts and bolts are used everywhere.
.jpeg "Iconic AC Roadster")
The Iconic claims to produce approximately 800 HP and 660
fb-ft of torgue. 0-60 can be achieved in less than 3 seconds and an
incredible 200mph of top speed. Four runs through an autocross course
were like operating a bulldozer in a sandbox, so we didn't preserve the
8000 rpm redline or need to shift the six speed manual transmission
beyond second.
.jpg "Iconic AC Roadster")
.jpeg "Iconic AC Roadster")
Slipping into a cozy cockpit, and grasping the leatherised steering
wheel, we heard a leonine roar as the enormous V8 awoke, surely thinking
of gazelles. Yet even without electronic intervention, which the
roadster forswears. Iconic promises the first 100 planned Roadsters for
February delivery at close to that $500,000 range, according to a
company official. For the sum, he promises the look and quality of a
Veyron or an Enzo. Blending the concepts "Cobra" and technology had
never occured to us, but the roadster proves it's something worth wrapping the mind around.
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