The AC 428 Coupé or “AC Frua” is a singularly multicultural motorcar, the frame was built in England, the body in Italy and the V8 in America. AC Cars, most famous for the British/American Cobra, decided in 1965 to use the new, strengthened frame from the Cobra to build a GT car capable of competing with Ferrari, Maserati and Aston Martin.
Automotive designer Pietro Frua was commissioned to design the body out of his Turin workshop and the American 428 V8 was chosen to provide enough power for the AC 428 Coupé to trounce the competition.
In what became a logistical nightmare, the chassis was being built in England and then shipped to Italy to have the body fitted, this was then shipped back to England to have the American engine and transmission installed. The overhead expenses on this car were huge and as a result, they cost more than their competitors by quite a significant margin, due to this high cost only 81 were built by the time production ceased in 1973.
They’re highly collectible today however the prices on them aren’t quite as high as you might imagine, the impeccable car pictured here sold last week at the Bonhams Hendon auction for £77,660 ($126,000 USD). Although this isn’t exactly pocket lint, it’s considerably less than you’ll pay for an original AC Cobra and dare I say it, this car hasn’t been sullied by countless fibreglass kit copies.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
