Every year at the London Concours the organisers curate a class celebrating a particular marque. This years manufacturer to be given the spotlight was AC Cars.
The history of AC Cars can be traced back to 1899 and Weller Bros of West Norwood, London. John Weller was the main inventor but he had founded Weller Bros alongside his brothers William, Harry and Thomas.
In 1902 a butcher named John Portwine became a share holder opening up the funds for the company to produce its’ first prototype.
At the first ever motor show at Crystal Palace in 1903 Weller Bros exhibited their first prototype – a 20hp touring car. Portwine thought that the touring car would be too expensive to make at a commercial level, and convinced John Weller to build a three wheeled delivery vehicle.
Autocars and Accessories was founded in 1904 and production started on the Autocarrier. It had a single wheel at the back, with two at the front and a big delivery box over the front axle.
It was a big success and by 1908 the Autocarrier range was expanded with the A.C Sociable which did away with the delivery box for a passenger seat. The army also took an interest in the Sociable and some were converted to be machine gun carriers.
The business continued to grow. The company changed its name to Auto Carriers LTD in 1911 and moved to Ferry Works at Thames Ditton in Surrey.
In 1913 they produced their first four wheeled car, which was a two seat cycle car. However very few were made before the outbreak of WW1 interrupted manufacturing and the Ferry Works plant was pressed into making shells. Auto Carriers did produce a single prototype for an armoured car in late 1914, but it was never adopted as the Rolls-Royce designed vehicles better suited the army’s needs.
Following the war they went to expand their range of cars and most importantly decided to go racing. This boom lasted until the mid 1920s when sales began to drop.
In 1927 businessman and race car driver Selwyn Edge purchased the company and reregistered the company as AC (Acedes) LTD.
1927 is the year our first car of the class was built. This is a Royal Saloon – featuring an AC chassis and 2 litre straight six with a body from a coachbuilder who’s identity has been lost to time. The current owner has had this car since 1987 and it has just been through a two year restoration.
I loved this little fuel gauge at the back. Made by a company called Smith’s.
The company was hit hard by the 1929 economic crash and went into voluntary liquidation.
AC was sold to Hurlock Haulage, who wanted one of their two factories to be used as a warehouse.
In 1930 a single car was produced for William Hurlock, who liked it and allowed for very limited production to resume using leftover parts.
The idea quickly grew though. Standard agreed to supply a new chassis and in 1932 a new range of cars was launched. Production was still limited to about 100 cars per year, but that’s a lot better than where AC could have been!
It was from this era that we find our second car. This is a 1935 AC 16/80 that in period was raced at Brooklands. It’s now owned by the Duke of Richmond, who of course famously organises the events at Goodwood including the Festival of Speed and Revival.
When the Second World War broke out car manufacturing stopped and AC’s resources were put into the war effort.
Then the company takes an interesting turn. Following the war – in 1947 – AC secured a contract with the Government to produce the Invacar.
The Invacar was a mobility car for disabled people that was produced until 1977. Half of the cars were produced by AC and the other half were by Invacar LTD based in Thundersley in Essex.
In 2003 they were actually recalled and banned as they were deemed to be unsafe and the vast majority were destroyed. This one, thankfully, was missed. It sat in a field from 1997 to 2011 and was restored lovingly over an 11 year period.
This particular example is an AC Acedes Mk15 from 1967.
Despite being a big part of the company’s history and financial success, the Invacar isn’t what AC are known for. They are known as a sports car manufacturer.
This is the AC Aceca. This particular car was a prototype for the 1954 Earls Court Motor Show. Following the show the car was purchased by land and water speed record legend Donald Campbell who repainted the car from dark blue to the same bright blue used on the Bluebird record vehicles.
The car was restored over four years, and the paint on it was mixed from a sample taken from the original paint on the K7 jet boat in which Campbell sadly lost his life.
The car has been raced at Goodwood and has taken part on the Mille Miglia. The owner intends to use and enjoy it as often as possible.
The AC Ace was the sister car to the Aceca. It debuted in 1953 and had anumber of engine options throughout the 1950s and very early 1960s.
In 1961 Ken Rudd of Ruddspeed fitted the Ace with a modified 2.6 litre straight six originally fitted to the Ford Zephyr. However only 36 of these Ruddspeed Aces were built as something big was coming for the little Ace.
Across the pond Carroll Shelby wanted to build a light weight European sportscar witha simple and powerful American V8 which would be just as at home on the race track as popping to the shops.
He started with an Austin Healey but saw a lot of potential in the AC Ace chassis. Shelby managed to secure a number of AC chassis from Charles Hurlock on credit and Ford provided a number of engines, getting larger in displacement as time went on.
The history speaks for itself here. The AC/Shelby Cobra was an incredibly successful racing car on both sides of the Atlantic.
This one has been a regular competitor at Goodwood.
This is an original U.K right hand drive car fitted with the 289cuin (4.7 litre) Ford V8.
Turin based coachbuilder Pietro Frua extended the 427 Cobra. This is one of three cars.
We then jump forward in time a bit to the AC 3000ME. It had the fantastic 3.0 Essex V6 mounted in the middle, the chassis was originally designed by Lola, and it has pop up lights. That is the perfect recipe for a great car, but unfortunately it came out in direct competition with the Lotus Esprit which had a much better reception.
I really like the 3000ME though and have never seen another. I’m going to have to look more into them.
In the mid 1980s the company once again went broke. Dissolution was a complicated affair, with the assets going to a number of people and the name going to a Cobra restoration based on the famous pre war race track Brooklands – Autokraft.
Autokraft continued to build Cobras and in 1993 unveiled the new AC Ace Brooklands. It shared the same Ford 302 V8 as the Autokraft era Cobra but it was housed in a much more modern chassis.
Between 46 and 50 cars were built before Autokraft went into receivership.
AC have had a few ups and downs since but they are still about and are still making cars (The MkVI – the Cobra name actually belongs to Ford). The new cars actually carry Chevrolet’s LS3 rather than a Ford motor – one would think the 5.0 Coyote found in the Mustang would be ideal!
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By Richard Francis
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