AC 428 Frua

Among the cars presented on its stand by the Swiss merchant Lukas Hüni, a very exclusive car held particularly our attention: the half-compartment AC 428 fitted with body by Frua and which was the show bus presented at the living room of Geneva of 1966.

After the mythical Cobra, AC decides to build a luxurious version WP of the latter animated by the engine Ford V8 of 428 c.i. A convertible is initially presented in 1965, before the model is not declined in half-compartment. It will be noted that the same year, Monteverdi starts to build in Switzerland a sporting half-compartment also drawn by Frua, but motorized by V8 Chrysler.

The frame of the Cobra Mk III was lengthened of fifteen centimetres. It receives Ford V8 428 c.i. (seven liters) coupled with a gear box to four reports/ratios. Sent at Frua in Turin, it is equipped with the body, which presents some similarities with Maserati Mistral, also work of Frua. The car turns over then to England to be equipped there with the last completions.

Initiated in 1966, the production of AC 428 Frua will cease in 1974 and only 80 cars will be built. Several factors explain this weak diffusion: strikes which have occurred in Italy, some problems of deliveries of the Ford engines and, in fine, the crisis of oil at the beginning of the Seventies. Fifty-eight half-compartments will be built, of which about thirty would have survived.