Ecosse Signature
| Ecosse | |
|---|---|
| Image does not exist |
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| Signature | |
| Production period: | 1988-1989 |
| Class : | Sports car |
| Body versions : | Coupe |
| Engines: |
Otto engine : 2.0 liters (121 kW) |
| Length: | 4090 mm |
| Width: | 1675 mm |
| Height: | 1200 mm |
| Wheelbase : | 2290 mm |
| Empty weight : | 950 kg |
| Previous model | AC 3000ME (small series) / AC Ecosse (prototype) |
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The Ecosse Signature was an imagined in October 1988 mid-engine - coupe with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder - inline engine and a body of modern carbon fiber composite material (pictures :).
It was made by the English company Ecosse Car Company Ltd. based in Knebworth , Hertfordshire north of London, was introduced and significantly developed. The drive comes from Fiat or Lancia , the other technical basis largely from the prototype AC Ecosse of the manufacturer AC (Scotland) plc, which became insolvent in 1985 . With the exception of an exhibition vehicle that was later dismantled, only one (pre-) production vehicle was produced from the Ecosse Signature in 1988/89; the small series production announced for 1989 did not materialize.
introduction
The Ecosse Signature is of automotive historical interest due to its close connection to the traditional English company AC Cars Ltd. Its roots go back to 1901 (start of work on the Weller Four Seat Tourer , presented at the British International Motor Show 1903); It celebrated its greatest successes with the legendary AC Cobra in the 1960s together with Carroll Shelby and Ford .
The Ecosse Signature forms the end point in one of two lines of development that the AC brand took after 1984: AC Cars Ltd. gave up its own vehicle production at its headquarters in Thames Ditton in the county of Surrey, west of London, where the company had been based since 1911, due to poor earnings. Most recently, she had produced the AC 3000ME there in small series from 1979 to 1984. In 1984/85 the newly founded company AC (Scotland) plc took over. in Glasgow , Scotland its licensed production. In 1985 she developed the technically and optically fundamentally revised prototype AC Ecosse on its basis , but due to the insolvency that occurred in the same year, it could no longer be officially presented or made ready for series production.
The company Ecosse Car Company Ltd. had set itself the goal of further developing the AC-Ecosse prototype and producing an exclusive thoroughbred sports car with British flair for customers with high technical demands in small series. The Signature was supposed to compete with sports cars from established small-series manufacturers such as Ginetta , Lotus , Marcos , Panther , Reliant and TVR .
The English model name "Signature" means "signature (performance)", "signature", also "identification melody" and "characteristic". A motive or a reason for the choice of name has not been handed down. Occasionally, English journals referred to the choice of name as “odd” (translated: “weird”, “strange”, “strange”). It arouses associations with the term “Signature Series”, as Cadillac and above all Lincoln used for exclusive, high-quality equipment variants of their top models up to the early 1990s; Various manufacturers of guitars, electric basses and drums such as Yamaha , Fender , Gibson or Gretsch also use the term “Signature” for mostly high-quality, usually more individual versions of their instruments.
There is no connection to the Racing Team Signature Racing of the French Philippe Sinault, which has competed in Formula 3 , the Le Mans Series and the 24-hour races of Le Mans for many years ; this was only founded in 1990.
History of origin
In 1985 the company AC (Scotland) plc. Under the leadership of Scottish businessman David McDonald, the successor model AC Ecosse has been announced based on the mid-engine sports car AC 3000ME . In place of the Ford - V6 -motor from Essex engine family with 3.0 liters a 2.5-liter V-6 engine was from Alfa Romeo occur, again as a transversely mounted engine means; the body, the chassis and the interior had also been completely redesigned. Development director was Aubrey Woods , who, among other things, had already worked successfully for the BRM racing car team in Formula 1 in the 1960s . The planned official presentation of the AC Ecosse at the Motorfair automobile fair in 1985, however, was no longer due to the company's insolvency.
Aubrey Woods was still convinced of the new model. He teamed up with a former racing driver and Ford employee, John Parsons, who owned AC Ecosse Ltd. and in March 1986 acquired the rights to the AC 3000ME and its planned successor AC Ecosse from the insolvency administrator . Over the next two years, Parsons and Woods put together a small team of experienced technicians (mostly from the racing scene) to further develop the prototype. The focus was on the change to a 2.0-liter in-line four-cylinder from Fiat / Lancia with a double overhead camshaft (Twin Cam; dohc ) and turbocharger, as well as minor optical retouching.
The work continued after the company moved to a simple, small workshop in Knebworth, Hertfordshire in early 1988 and was renamed Ecosse Car Company Ltd. had been renamed. Due to the extent of the vehicle changes, a new type approval was required; A prototype managed the necessary crash test without any problems. For legal reasons, the glorious name “AC” could not be retained after the Ecosse had moved far away from the original AC 3000ME and Brian Angliss with his company Autokraft Ltd. had acquired the AC naming rights in order to use them for the Cobra Mk.IV sports cars produced by him (further developed variant of the AC Cobra 427 ).
From October 22 to 30, 1988, Parsons and Woods and their new company officially presented a revised exhibition vehicle, now known as the Ecosse Signature , at the British International Motor Show in the National Exhibition Center (NEC) in Birmingham . The aim was to sound out the interest of the public and press and to obtain additional financial support for the planned small series production. This should start from spring 1989 with an annual production of 150 vehicles in Coventry . The purchase price was quoted as £ 18,950, or approximately DM 59,000 at the exchange rate at the time . For comparison: The Toyota MR2 cost £ 13,551 in England at that time and the Lotus Esprit £ 24,950.
The reactions were mixed: While some welcomed the appearance of a new British mid-engined sports car and described the vehicle as exciting, others criticized the long development time since 1985, the lack of image and the announced high purchase price; the idiosyncratic design also met with some harsh criticism.
Regardless of these conflicting reactions, Ecosse built a single street-legal (pre-) production vehicle as a demonstration vehicle for customers and a test vehicle for the press using individual parts of the dismantled exhibition vehicle. September 1989 was named as the new beginning of small series production. At the same time, the issue of official sales brochures began in 1989. Ecosse hoped for a boost for the project from a detailed test report in the specialist magazine “Performance Car”; this appeared in June 1989, but came to the sobering result that the vehicle in the tested form was immature.
The announced production date passed without production ever starting; there were obviously too few orders to secure further funding for the project. The greatest difficulty had proven that potential customers' interest in buying - as with the AC 3000ME from Thames Ditton and Scotland - had been lost in the course of the long development period.
Vehicle model details
Body and equipment
The angular body of the Ecosse Signature has a pronounced wedge shape, with a relatively high, slightly rising belt line, angular flared fenders and large, oblong-angular air inlets directly behind the doors to supply the mid-engine. In contrast to the AC 3000ME, there are no air inlets or outlets at the front of the vehicle or on the front hood, which gives the vehicle a smooth, flat appearance. Other features are the pop-up headlights and the wide B-pillar covering the roll bar . An additional flat C-pillar delimits a rear triangular side window with an additional air inlet and gives the impression of a hatchback; In fact, the rear window - as with the AC 3000ME - is almost vertical directly behind the seats in front of the engine. The body shows similarities to the design of other English vehicles from the early and mid-1980s such as the Lotus Esprit and the TVR Tasmin . However , there are hardly any similarities to the design of the AC 3000ME , the original model.
The compact and sturdy body is made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP).
The shape of the two-door two-seater is based on a design by the English designer Peter Stevens from 1984/85, who subsequently became chief designer at Lotus from 1985 to 1989 and then super sports cars such as the Jaguar XJR-15 , the McLaren F1 (together with Gordon Murray ) and designed the MG XPower SV . Modifications to its design were made by Aubrey Woods and his technicians; this concerns in detail: additional small rectangular headlights under clear, flush plastic covers above the front bumper; No decorative elements / foil on the front; enlarged side air inlets down to the high door sills; Far-reaching exterior mirrors with strong horizontal suspensions instead of flush-fitting angular mirror housings as well as multi-part five-spoke light alloy wheels with dark wheel spokes instead of one-part five-spoke wheels or the flat light alloy wheels of the Alfa Romeo GTV 6 (1st generation) (pictures :).
Comparison of various contemporary English sports cars:
AC 3000ME - series from 1979–1985
Lotus Esprit S3 - series from 1981–1987
TVR 280i Cabriolet - series from 1981–1988
Panther Solo - small series 1990
The angular styling looked backward again when it was introduced in 1988; the trend at this time was again towards rounder, flowing shapes. Relatively large vehicle overhangs, especially at the front, in connection with an unusually short wheelbase give the Ecosse Signature discordant proportions. The angular shape met with predominantly - sometimes very harsh - criticism and was likely to have been a decisive factor in the model's lack of sales success.
For the interior, Ecosse - like AC (Scotland) with the AC Ecosse prototype - relied largely on components from the parts rack from Alfa Romeo and the parent company Fiat or their suppliers. There were also high-quality carpets for the interior, sports seats as well as covers and panels made of Alcantara . The trunk is behind the engine and has a capacity of 280 liters; thus it was 60 liters smaller than the AC 3000ME .
engine and gears
The engine and transmission of the Ecosse Signature are mounted as a unit across the seat as a mid-engine and drive the rear wheels.
| engine | water-cooled four-cylinder in-line engine (Fiat / Lancia 2.0 ie Twin-Cam Turbo), compression 8.0: 1, two overhead camshafts (Twin Cam), overhead valves (dohc), 2 valves per cylinder, 5 crankshaft bearings, intake manifold injection Bosch LE2 -Jetronic, turbocharging: 1 × Garrett T3 with intercooler, no catalytic converter, oil content 7.0 liters |
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| Displacement | 1995 cc |
| Bore × stroke | 84.0 mm × 90.0 mm |
| power | 162.0 bhp (PS 164.3, 120.8 kW) at 5500 min -1 |
| Max. Torque | 209 lbfft (29 kpm, 284 Nm) 2750 min -1 |
| Top speed | 233 km / h |
| Acceleration 0-60 mph (≈ 96.6 km / h) | 6.2 seconds |
| Fuel consumption | not specified |
The engine comes from the Fiat group and is a development of the Abarth engine department in terms of the cylinder head and the adaptation of the turbocharger . In this specification it was used for a short time in the Lancia Thema 2.0 i. e. Turbo both in the sedan version and in the station wagon called “Station Wagon”, before it was replaced there by the more modern version with a four-valve cylinder head or catalytic converter . It is very similar to the engine used in the legendary all-wheel drive Lancia Delta HF 4WD. Fiat itself did not use the engine in this specification (Twin Cam two-valve turbo without catalytic converter) in production models; in the Fiat Croma 2.0 i. e. Instead, a simpler variant with only one overhead camshaft was used.
When engine block of the Ecosse Signature or mentioned Fiat and Lancia models is successful for decades Construction of the former Ferrari -Konstrukteurs Aurelio Lampredi for Fiat from the 1960s.
It has not been proven whether the more powerful or more environmentally friendly engine version with four-valve cylinder head and catalytic converter could or should have been installed for the planned series production from September 1989 or later.
The idea of using a turbocharged engine to increase the performance of the mid-engine coupé had already been implemented in the AC 3000ME : the Silverstone-based company Rooster Turbos owned by tuner Robin Rew had 17 of the vehicles built in Thames Ditton with Ford Essex V6 engines equipped with turbochargers; the AC 3000ME with the chassis no. ME… 161 from 1981 has been converted by two American businessmen in collaboration with Carroll Shelby into the one-off AC 3000ME Shelby Special with 2.2 l four-cylinder turbo engine and 109 kW / 148 PS from the Dodge Shelby Charger from Chrysler USA .
The Signature has a transversely installed, fully synchronized manual transmission with five forward gears and reverse gear, operated via a conventional center shift and a single-plate dry clutch . As with the Lancia Thema, the axle reduction is 2.944, the reduction of the fifth gear is 0.93.
Chassis and running gear
Chassis and suspension of the Ecosse Signature were very elaborately constructed: He has a monocoque chassis, which is in the interpretation of the contemporary FIA - Group C based race car. The concept comes from Aubrey Woods. It was considered to be extremely rigid and offered a very high level of occupant protection.
The vehicle has independent front and rear suspension with double wishbones, coil springs and shock absorbers and additional stabilizers front and rear. The Signature is delayed by a servo-assisted hydraulic dual-circuit brake system with brake force regulator and brake discs all around (front 283 mm (internally ventilated), rear 272 mm); an anti-lock braking system was not available. The vehicle has a rack and pinion steering with power assistance that enables a turning radius of 9.5 meters. The tank capacity is 64 liters. The Ecosse Signature was equipped with five-hole light alloy wheels measuring 6.5 J × 15 inches and radial wide tires measuring 205/50 VR 15.
The track width is 1465 mm at the front and 1500 mm at the rear, the gross vehicle weight is 1250 kg.
Todays situation
The only (pre-) production vehicle from 1988/89 still exists today. It is owned by an AC enthusiast and collector who, in addition to this vehicle, also owns the single AC 3000ME lightweight twin turbo , a normal AC 3000ME , a left-hand drive AC 3000ME Turbo and the mid-engine prototype Diablo by Peter Bohanna and Robin Stables , the starting point for the AC 3000ME .
The exhibition vehicle from 1988 was dismantled by Ecosse and no longer exists today; However, individual parts were reused for the only (pre-) production vehicle.
Comparable vehicle models
Other contemporary mid-engined / rear-engined sports cars with four and six cylinders and similar power (95 kW – 155 kW):
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literature
- Mike Lawrence: A to Z of Sports Cars, 1945-1990 . Bay View Books Ltd., Bideford, Devon 1996, ISBN 978-1-870979-81-8 (English, keyword: Ecosse (GB)).
- Trevor Legate: Cobra: The First 40 Years . MBI Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA 2006, ISBN 978-0-7603-2423-3 , pp. 190 (English).
- Signing Up and Almost There. In: "Performance Car" (magazine), June 1989 (detailed report - English)
- AC Ecosse - The story of the Ecosse Signature. In: "Practical Classics" (magazine), September 2003 (detailed report - English)
- Ecosse Car Company Ltd., color Ecosse Signature sales brochure, 1989 (English)
- Automobil Revue Catalog 1990
- Car catalog, 33rd edition, year 1989/90, Vereinigte Motor-Verlage GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart, p. 104, 248/249
Web links
- History of the model and the brand with picture (non-commercial website of the AC 3000ME owners) ( Memento of June 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
References and comments
- ↑ a b c d e f technical data based on the Carfolio portal (German)
- ↑ Image of the Ecosse Signature ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: more images of the Ecosse Signature
- ↑ a b c d e car catalog model year 1990
- ↑ a b c d e Information on the Ecosse Signature on the website of the AC-3000ME owner ( Memento from June 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English, accessed on May 10, 2015.) - The names of the two main parties involved are in this internet source mistakenly misspelled it slightly; correctly it must read: John Parson s (instead of Parson) and Aubrey Wood s (instead of Wood), s. NN in: "The Autocar", ed. No. 171, No. 4696, 1987, p. 9 and "Autocar & Motor", ed. 178, 1988, p. 70.
- ↑ AC company history on the AC Heritage website ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ AC 3000ME model history on the website of the AC 3000ME owner ( memento from June 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English) Retrieved on May 10, 2015.
- ↑ a b to the AC 3000ME with the chassis no. ME… 129, center, there also correct spelling of the name Aubrey Wood s ( Memento from June 22, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English) Retrieved on May 10, 2015.
- ↑ NN in: "Country life", 1988, p. 164 (English)
- ↑ a b c Giles Chapman in: "Autocar & Motor", Ed. 178, 1988, p. 81 (English)
- ↑ a b c N.N. in: "Autocar & Motor", ed. 178, 1988, p. 70 (English)
- ↑ a b quote: “... look truly dire. ... ", translated:" ... look really terrible. ... ', Giles Chapman in: "Autocar & Motor", Ed. 178, 1988, p. 81 (joint review of the Ecosse Signature and Lea Francis Ace of Spades - English)
- ^ Signing Up and Almost There. In: “Performance Car” (magazine), June 1989
- ↑ on the author of the vehicle design ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (at the end of the text, French)
- ↑ Website of the designer Peter Stevens (English)
- ↑ Image of the Ecosse Signature (above) compared to the AC Ecosse (below) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ NN in: "The Autocar", Ed. No. 171, No. 4696, 1987, p. 9 (English)
- ↑ NN in: "Autocar & Motor", Ed. 178, 1988, pp. 19 and 70 (English)
- ↑ NN in: "Autocar & Motor", Ed. 178, 1988, p. 159 (English)
