#0339 AC Cobra A 98

Le Mans 24 Hours 1964

British AC Cobra Coupe
Jack Sears, Peter Bolton
DNF

Jack Sears pummels the AC Cobra A98 coupe out of the Tertre Rouge corner during the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans. The A98, a one-off built by AC Cars in England, featured a lower roofline than the similar American works car, the Shelby Daytona Cobras , who also took part in the long-distance classic this year. To test its top speed ahead of Le Mans, Sears and co-driver Peter Bolton took the car to the M1 Motorway where both smashed a record of 185 mph (about 296 km/h) into the early June hours. Unfortunately, newspapers in England got wind of the matter, and the self-righteous headliners played no small part in imposing Britain's 70-mile speed limit, which remains in place to this day. The car made a promising start at Le Mans in 1964, but burned to a wreck during the race after a crash involving a Ferrari at Mulsanne corner. It was reconstructed again in 2010.