AC History |
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The Automotive history of AC.
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Autocars and Accessories was formed in 1904 by an engineer called John Weller and a butcher called John Portwine. The vision of the two businessmen was to create a tricar for business use which they called the "Autocarrier", The Autocarrier was a great success and was widely used by stores all around London, this led to a demand for a passenger vehicle in 1907.
In 1911 Autocars and Accessories became Autocarriers Ltd and the ''AC'' logo was first introduced. The factory was moved to Ferry Works, Thames Ditton in Surrey England, bordering Greater London.
In just two short years by 1913 the factory was producing a vehicle dubbed as the ''Rolls Royce of light cars'' it was a four wheel drive light car with a Fivet engine.
In 1921 S F Edge had joined the board and shortly after in 1922 the founders John Weller and John Portwine both left the business and the name was once again changed to A.C. Cars Ltd.
In 1927 A.C. Cars Ltd was bought outright by S F Edge for the sum of £135,000 and the business was and re-registered as AC Ltd.
Sales had been declining for a while and the 1929 recession forced the a voluntary liquidation and by 1930 all production had stopped. A haulage company run by the Hurlock family bought the business for the use of the warehouse but agrred to continue the AC service to continue.
William Hurlock received the only vehicle made by AC in 1930 and then agreed to a very limited production line using mostly previous models left over parts.
A new range of AC cars was launched in 1932 after an agreement with Standard who became the official supplier of the chassis.
The war in 1939 halted the production all be it only on a small scale and was then restarted on 1947. AC produced a 2 litre engine model and then agreed with the government on a large contract for the production of single seated invalid carriages with a glass fibre body all equipped with BSA engines which were produced up until 1976. AC also produced a three wheeled microcar called the Petite wich featured an aluminium body.
The AC Ace was born in 1953 with a lightweight chassis and a choice of two engines. The original 2 litre engine and the six-cylinder Bristol know as the Ace-Bristols with 135 break horse power.
1957 and 1958 saw the Ace being raced at Le Mans in France.
In 1959 the Ford Zephyr engine replaced the Bristol engine, now the Ace was capable of a top speed of 125 mph with 170 break horse power.
In 1962 the AC Cobra was produced after a Carroll Shelby approached AC about using the small block Ford V8 Motor together with the Ace chassis in order to compete in sports car racing with the Chevrolet Corvette in the United States.
The AC Cobra was very powerful and has been blamed for the 70 mph speed limit that was introduced on motorways across Great Britain after being seen doing 196 mph in a test run. Subsequently many accidents happened in bad weather conditions with limited vision in fog which contributed to the speed limit.
In 1964 Ferrari completely outclassed the AC Cobra in racing which led to Carroll Shelby introducing a big block 390 Ford FE engine which made the car impossible and unsafe to drive. The MK3 chassis was the answer which was a mix of Ford and AC technology creating an unbeatable 2,200 lb race car. The 427 FE Nascar Side Oiler Ford V8 was the engine behind the AC Cobra with 385 break horse power!
The AC 427 Cobra is the most commonly copied (replica) car of all time and is highly sought-after despite it being a failure in the commercial market.
Two versions were made of the AC 427 Cobra, a street model and a competition model which Shelby had renamed to the Cobra 427 SC (Super Competition) for sale to the general public.
The Cobra name was sold to Ford in 1965 who then went on to develop the much loved Ford GT40.
AC continued production with the 427 MK3 Cobra called the AC 289 in Europe with the small block Ford motor. Pietro Frua the famous Italian coach builder was contacted to design a GT body for a stretched MK3 Cobra chassis.
In 1967 the AC 428 Frua was introduced with the Long stroked 428 motor but the cost of shipping the chassis to Italy and back made it too expensive resulting in the end of production in 1973 with only a few being made.
The London Motor Show in 1973 saw the introduction of a mid engine ME3000 complete with the 3 litre V6 engine by Ford. Unfortunately due to development issues no sales were made until 1979 and at this point the business was once again struggling and led to the sale of the company to David McDonald in 1984. Hillington, Glasgow was the new home for AC and the business was registered as A.C. (Scotland).
In 1987 the original A.C. company was sold to Ford who partnered with a company CP Autokraft on the acquisition, Brian Angliss the owner of Autokraft had already been making Cobra''s in Brooklands, Surrey.
In 1996 the company was sold yet again to stop the business falling into administration by Pride Automotive, the business continued to produce cars under the name AC Car Group Ltd. The current factory was sold and a new factory was opened in Frimley in 2001.
Frimley mostly concentrated on restorations and repairs and the production of the 427 FIA Roadster, MkII and MkIII 289 vehicles.
In 2004 the Frimley factory was closed and a new factory opened in Guildford, Surrey but shortly after in 2005 AC Cars told plans to expand the business and moved to Malta and by May the first vehicle chassis was produced and shipped. Bridgeport, Connecticut in the United States is the home for a new company called AC Cars Manufacturing the factory is the same building originally used to create automobiles way back in 1885 by Armstrong Electric.
Project Kimber signed a deal to use the AC name in September 2006 on a new sports car which is based on the Smart Roadster. |
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