Decades before the Shelby Cobra, Railton was already doing the same trick: dropping a big, cheap American engine into a light British chassis for outrageous performance. Historians have called it a pre-war Cobra.
Lead trim: Terraplane 4.0 L Hudson straight-eight (100 bhp)
Railton TerraplaneTerraplane · 1933–1935
- 0spots by members
- Unclaimednobody has spotted one yet
- 0sets it belongs to
Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Railton Terraplane yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactDecades before the Shelby Cobra, Railton was already doing the same trick: dropping a big, cheap American engine into a light British chassis for outrageous performance. Historians have called it a pre-war Cobra.
The Railton Terraplane, the founding model of Noel Macklin's English-coachwork-on-American-chassis marque (Fairmile Engineering, Cobham, Surrey), fitted a British body by John Charles & Co to a Hudson Terraplane straight-eight chassis, initially as a two-door tourer with a saloon added soon after — nicknamed "a pre-war Shelby Cobra" for the combination of a light British body and a torquey American engine. Its 4,010 cc straight-eight made 100 bhp (101 PS), good for 0-62 mph (100 km/h) in 13 seconds. In 1935 the Terraplane chassis was replaced by the Hudson Eight's, becoming the Railton 8. No drivetrain layout or dimensions are stated on the page.
Collectors Spotted in the Railton Terraplane Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Railton Terraplane yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
One published trim in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terraplane 4.0 L Hudson straight-eight (100 bhp) | 1933–1935 | 4.0 L Inline-8 | 100 hp | — | — | — | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
The Celica XX, Japan's name for the A60 Supra, introduced the world's first in-car navigation computer.
The CTR Anniversary looks like a 911 but Ruf built its carbon monocoque from scratch, no Porsche body underneath.
The 228's coupe styling hides a sedan underneath: Maserati stretched it onto the longer four-door Biturbo chassis to make room for its biggest V6, which is literally where the name comes from — 2-door, 2.8 litre.
Switching to fuel injection let this V8 finally shed its trademark bonnet bulge — and only 405 of these flat-hooded Series 5 cars were built before the whole model retired in 1989.
Japanese buyers got a secret weapon in their MX-6 — the JDM-only KL-ZE V6 made about 40 more horsepower than the engine sold in the exact same car in North America.
An American tuner, Callaway Cars, built twin-turbo conversions of the GTV6 that boosted its V6 by fifty percent to 230 hp — turning Alfa's grand tourer into something far quicker than the factory ever intended.
Audi TTS Coupe · TTS Coupe (2016–2023) · 2016–2023.
A product of the DaimlerChrysler merger, the Crossfire shares 80% of its parts with the Mercedes-Benz SLK — German bones under American badges.