AC goes OTT with the high-output, low-slung AC GT SuperSport

You'll need a historian's eye for detail to keep track of the comings and goings of the UK's AC Cars. Originally established in 1901, AC (Auto Carrier) survived the ebb and flow of the first half of the century, making everything from regular saloons to three-wheeled delivery cars (the original Auto Carriers), ‘invalid carriages’ and even railcars.

In 1953, AC launched the Ace sports car, a pretty two-seat roadster with racetrack potential. The Ace went on to form the basis of the AC Cobra, thanks to the work of Ford’s racing driving and development engineer Carroll Shelby, who shoehorned an V8 engine into the compact Ace, beefed up the bodywork and created a legend.

Over time, the AC Cobra has become one of the most iconic and imitated sports cars of all time. Today, the auto world is awash with Cobra replicas, with specialist manufacturers making Cobra kits of varying complexity and power, from Pilgrim Motorsports, Gardner Douglas Sports Cars and Crendon Replicas in the UK, to Factory Five Racing, Kirkham Motorsports and the officially sanctioned Superformance.

Remarkably, though, AC still exists. The company’s AC GT Roadster is effectively the true heir to the original Cobra. This, however, is the SuperSport, an even more potent version of the AC GT intended to bring the car back to the American market. Created in collaboration with AC Cars America, the AC GT SuperSport will be built in an edition of just examples, each of which will be tailored to the buyer’s requirements.

The first SuperSports will reach US soil in 2027. As always, a V8 provides the power and the company reckons that up to 1,025bhp is possible. Compact and light, the SuperSport certainly brings back the brawn and macho heft of the original.

That image is helped by wider, smoother bodywork, deeper sills and vents and the addition of a colossal rear wing. A limited US edition adds red, white and blue bodywork to over-emphasise the SuperSport’s all-American muscle car stylings.

Meanwhile, those who prefer the neat precision of the original AC Ace will find the company still makes an updated version of the classic, either with a Ford EcoBoost engine or as 72kWh-packing EV. Finally, consider the new AC GT Coupe, an elegant fixed-roof V8 inspired by various racing versions of the Cobra.

As the company’s first-ever closed roof production car, it’s an instant classic and one of the best-looking iterations of the evergreen Ace/Cobra design to date.

AC GT SuperSport, from $550,000, AC.cars

AC GT Coupe, from $301,792, AC.cars, @ACcars.official

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Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.