AC Cobra GT Coupe Puts a Fixed Roof on a 125-Year Icon

The AC Cobra GT Coupe gives Britain’s oldest active carmaker something it has never put into series production: a Cobra with a permanently fixed roof. Unveiled by AC Cars to mark its 125th anniversary, the carbon-bodied two-seater bolts a Ford 5.0-litre V8 to a closed cabin, with pricing that opens at 234,300 British pounds (about $315,000) and first deliveries promised for 2028.

AC calls it the first true production Cobra coupe, and the qualifier is carrying real weight. The company has been screwing hardtops and one-off coupe bodies onto Cobras since 1963, so the milestone is narrower than the press shots suggest.

AC’s 125th-Birthday Coupe, by the Numbers

Under the long bonnet sits the familiar Coyote 5.0-litre V8 from Ford, offered with either a six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic. The naturally aspirated tune makes 450 horsepower and 410 lb-ft of torque. Add the supercharger and the figures climb to 720 horsepower and 605 lb-ft, enough for a claimed zero to 60 mph in under 3.5 seconds.

The body is carbon fibre over a bespoke aluminium spaceframe, the same architecture introduced on the Cobra GT Roadster that began production in 2023. That chassis stretches the car well past 1960s dimensions: 166.3 inches long, 77.9 inches wide, on a 101.1-inch wheelbase. An ND-generation Mazda MX-5 would fit comfortably inside that footprint. Curb weight lands at 3,527 pounds, modest for the power but heavier than the carbon-and-aluminium recipe might imply.

At the top of the range, AC’s official launch material lists a limited Clubsport version capped at 99 cars and tuned to 799 bhp. In the United States, AC Cars America has posted the Coupe from $320,500 before tax, putting a single car above the cost of two base Porsche 911s.

The Coupe Claim Comes With Sixty Years of Footnotes

AC name-checks its own history in the launch, and the history is more crowded than the word “first” allows. Closed-roof Cobras have come and gone for six decades, each one chasing the same prize the new car wants: less drag, more speed, a shape that could run flat out without lifting at the front.

1. 1963: AC fits a removable hardtop to a Cobra for that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours.
2. 1964: the one-off A98 coupe is built and raced at Le Mans, then tested at extreme speed on a British motorway.
3. 2026: the GT Coupe arrives as the first version offered to customers as a fixed-roof production car.

The A98 and the M1 Legend

Dubbed A98 after its chassis number, AC’s 1964 coupe looked almost nothing like the roadster beneath it. It raced at Le Mans that year and retired with mechanical trouble, robbed of a finish it might have earned. Its real fame came on the road, not the track.

During testing on the M1 motorway, the A98 was clocked at around 183 mph at a time when British motorways had no upper limit. The tale that this single run forced the country’s 70 mph cap is repeated often and stands up poorly; the national limit did not become permanent law until 1967, several years after the headlines. The story sells better than the timeline supports.

Shelby’s Daytona Coupe and the Aero Lesson

The closed Cobra that mattered most wore an American badge. Carroll Shelby’s Daytona Coupe, shaped by designer Peter Brock, took the open Cobra’s running gear and wrapped it in a low, tapered, Kammtail body that cut drag and added more than 20 mph. You can read the full provenance on the 1964 Shelby Daytona Coupe collection record held by a Philadelphia automotive museum.

In 1965 the Daytona Coupes won the FIA International Manufacturers’ GT Championship, beating Ferrari and handing an American constructor its first FIA world title. That win is the template every Cobra coupe since has tried to honour, and the GT Coupe’s Kammtail rear is a direct nod to it.

Kammtail Aero and a Slightly Awkward Silhouette

The fixed roof is not just nostalgia. AC’s design team has carried over the roadster’s shoulder line and added a Kammtail (a chopped, vertical rear panel that trims turbulence) plus a subtle double-bubble roof, both borrowed from racing practice to manage airflow over a tall cabin.

On the styling, opinions split. Where the Daytona was a ground-up redesign, the GT Coupe reads as a roadster with a roof grafted on, recognisably a Cobra but a touch ungainly from some angles. That is the trade for keeping the silhouette honest rather than inventing a clean-sheet shape.

The engineering trade is more interesting than the looks. A roof adds rigidity and high-speed stability, which suits a car making this much power, yet it also adds the mass that pushes curb weight past 1.7 tonnes. For buyers who want the open-air drama, the Roadster still exists; the Coupe is the version built to be driven hard and fast for hours.

Assembled on a Former Saab Line in Sweden

The most unexpected fact about the car is where it gets built. Final assembly happens at the former Saab plant in Trollhättan, Sweden, through a contract with T-Engineering, a firm founded by ex-Saab staff after the Swedish brand’s collapse and later backed by China’s Dongfeng.

That partnership already runs. The first customer-spec Cobra GT Roadster rolled off the Trollhättan line in mid-2025, the plant’s first new production car in roughly a decade, and the Coupe follows the same route. One automotive legend, mothballed since Saab’s bankruptcy, now keeps another one alive.

• June 12, 2025 – first GT Roadster completed at the Trollhattan plant
• 100 hand-built cars a year is AC’s current output, per the company
• 2028 – the year Coupe deliveries are scheduled to begin

Like the manual-transmission holdouts elsewhere in the performance world, including BMW’s send-off for the stick-shift M3, AC is leaning on tradition as a selling point, as covered in our look at the final manual BMW M3 CS Handschalter. The Coupe’s six-speed option is part of the same pitch.

Conza’s Bet on Scaling to 1,000 Cars

Behind the birthday present is a growth plan. David Conza, chief executive of AC Cars, frames the Coupe as proof the company can build to order and expand without losing its hand-built character. The numbers he cites are ambitious for a maker of this size.

As we celebrate the 125th anniversary of the company, I want to thank the entire team for their dedication as we move from a boutique manufacturer to a global performance brand. However, we will still retain the craftsmanship and exclusivity that our clients respect.

Conza, speaking at the launch, has said the ambition is to take AC from around 100 hand-built cars a year toward no more than 1,000 cars across all models. That is the bet the Coupe really represents, a heritage shape doing duty as the volume-builder for a brand reaching for ten times its current scale. AC is hardly alone in mining an old badge for a modern revival; Stellantis is trying something similar with its V8 muscle play, as we wrote in our piece on the Dodge Copperhead SRT concept. If the order book fills before the first cars ship in 2028, the Trollhattan experiment scales and the 1,000-car target looks reachable. If it stalls, AC stays the 100-car boutique it has been for most of its long life.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the AC Cobra GT Coupe cost?

Pricing starts at 234,300 British pounds (about $315,000) for the naturally aspirated version and 256,300 pounds for the supercharged car. AC Cars America has listed the Coupe from $320,500 before tax for US buyers.

When will deliveries start?

AC has said first customer deliveries of the GT Coupe are scheduled for 2028, following the Cobra GT Roadster, which entered production first.

Where is the AC Cobra GT Coupe built?

Final assembly takes place at the former Saab factory in Trollhattan, Sweden, through a partnership with T-Engineering, a company founded by former Saab engineers and backed by China’s Dongfeng.

Does the AC Cobra GT Coupe come with a manual transmission?

Yes. Buyers can choose a six-speed manual or a 10-speed automatic, both mated to the Ford 5.0-litre Coyote V8.

Is this really the first AC Cobra coupe ever?

It is the first AC sells as a fixed-roof production model. AC built a one-off coupe, the A98, in 1964 and fitted removable hardtops to Cobras as early as 1963, so closed Cobras have existed for decades.

What is the most powerful version of the GT Coupe?

AC’s launch material lists a limited Clubsport variant capped at 99 examples and tuned to 799 bhp, with a quoted zero to 60 mph time of 3.2 seconds, sitting above the 720-horsepower supercharged car.