mikeyb
11-16-2005, 09:26 PM
Once-British sports car firm AC Cars is to build a manufacturing facility in Bridgeport, Connecticut, its first US factory.
AC's new factory is part-funded by a $1.5m loan from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, a useful sweetener for construction costs. Total investment will be around $4.5m, with the plant creating over 140 jobs in the Bridgeport area.
The city is the largest in Connecticut, but although it was once a carmaking centre, there have been no car factories there for many years. There are, however, local supplier firms and a skilled local workforce. The Connecticut facility will make either the Mk 6 - a restyled, wider Cobra - or the new Mamba coupe for the US market. Cars destined for the UK will continue to come from AC's assembly plant in Malta.
All the near-future AC models - also to include an entry-level V6-powered Ace roadster - will be based around a new version of the Cobra's tubular steel chassis, with composite body panels. The Mk 6 and Mamba will feature the Ford 4.6 V8.
AC, the oldest surviving British car company, was saved from liquidation in 2003 by a Malta-based holding company. It still has a small engineering and construction centre in Frimley, Surrey. The company was founded in 1900, with its first vehicle, a three-wheel chain-drive "Auto Carrier" delivery van with a one-cylinder, air-cooled engine, making its debut in 1903. Basing itself in Thames Ditton, Surrey, it developed four-wheelers after World War I.
Under new ownership in the 1930s, AC went on to make special-bodied sports cars, and more expensive 2-litre saloons and drop-head coupes after World War II.
Its most famous models, however, were the John Tojeiro-designed Ace (1953) and the subsequent Cobra (from 1962), developed by US racing legend Carroll Shelby to take a Ford V8.
In 2003, a new-generation AC Shelby Cobra was announced, with AC part-building cars in Frimley to be finished by Shelby in Las Vegas, though this project does not appear to have come to production fruition as yet.
source:http://www.channel4.com/4car/news/news-story.jsp?news_id=13422
AC's new factory is part-funded by a $1.5m loan from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, a useful sweetener for construction costs. Total investment will be around $4.5m, with the plant creating over 140 jobs in the Bridgeport area.
The city is the largest in Connecticut, but although it was once a carmaking centre, there have been no car factories there for many years. There are, however, local supplier firms and a skilled local workforce. The Connecticut facility will make either the Mk 6 - a restyled, wider Cobra - or the new Mamba coupe for the US market. Cars destined for the UK will continue to come from AC's assembly plant in Malta.
All the near-future AC models - also to include an entry-level V6-powered Ace roadster - will be based around a new version of the Cobra's tubular steel chassis, with composite body panels. The Mk 6 and Mamba will feature the Ford 4.6 V8.
AC, the oldest surviving British car company, was saved from liquidation in 2003 by a Malta-based holding company. It still has a small engineering and construction centre in Frimley, Surrey. The company was founded in 1900, with its first vehicle, a three-wheel chain-drive "Auto Carrier" delivery van with a one-cylinder, air-cooled engine, making its debut in 1903. Basing itself in Thames Ditton, Surrey, it developed four-wheelers after World War I.
Under new ownership in the 1930s, AC went on to make special-bodied sports cars, and more expensive 2-litre saloons and drop-head coupes after World War II.
Its most famous models, however, were the John Tojeiro-designed Ace (1953) and the subsequent Cobra (from 1962), developed by US racing legend Carroll Shelby to take a Ford V8.
In 2003, a new-generation AC Shelby Cobra was announced, with AC part-building cars in Frimley to be finished by Shelby in Las Vegas, though this project does not appear to have come to production fruition as yet.
source:http://www.channel4.com/4car/news/news-story.jsp?news_id=13422