AC378 GT Zagato

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Origins

The 378 GT Zagato of 2012 was one of several attempts to keep AC alive as more than a trademark: a modern V8 grand tourer wearing a body developed with Zagato, its lines first shown as a concept some years earlier. Underneath sat a 6.2-litre General Motors V8 — the displacement giving the car its name in typical AC fashion — with assembly arranged abroad rather than in Britain. It promised muscular, analogue performance in tiny numbers for buyers drawn to the badge's Cobra bloodline. Very few were built, and the project faded as AC's ownership and plans shifted again. It stands as a marker of the marque's strange afterlife: a name too storied to die, passed between custodians, each trying to bottle 1963 again.