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AC Frua

AC decided it needed to move on from the Cobra - and decided that an upmarket GT was what it needed to go chasing Ferrari and Maserati buyers. It was an interesting car, and one of a very popular breed - British engineering, Italian styling and American muscle. Think Jensen Interceptor and Gordon Keeble. The AC 428 was built on a six-inch extended Cobra chassis clothed in bodywork – steel this time – by Frua from Turin. Although it looks similar to the Maserati Mistral, the AC 428 shared now external panels, and only the door handles and glass frames were shared between the two. The 7.0-litre V8 came from the Ford Galaxie, and was used in some Cobras.

The convertible 428 shared the coupe's phenomenal performer, enjoying a sub-6.0sec 0-60mph times even in more popular automatic form. All 428s benefited from an excellent chassis and suspension set-up, meaning that it had neutral handling and excellent steering. But the 428 ended up being too expensive and not special enough - the cost of the bodies and shipping chassis to and from Italy meant prices were 20% higher than rival Aston Martins and the conceptually-similar (and vastly more appealing) Jensen Interceptor. Consequently 51 coupés and 29 convertibles were sold in six years.

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