1958 AC Ace Bristol Roadster Review and Buyer's Guide

Owning one of these cars

This car sold for $82,500, including buyer’s commission, at the RM auction in Monterey, California, on Aug. 16-17, 2003.

The predecessor to AC, Autocars and Accessories, was formed in London in 1904 after a young engineer named John Weller joined forces with John Portwine, a butcher, to produce a three-wheeled commercial vehicle called the Autocarrier. With a single-cylinder, air-cooled motor, the Autocarrier was by all measures a success, and led to the formation of a successor company called Autocarriers, Ltd., and a move to Thames Ditton, Surrey. Passenger vehicle production commenced in 1907 (some sources say 1908) by replacing the cargo area in the vehicle with passenger space. In 1913, a four-wheeled vehicle designed by Weller followed, initially powered by a French-built Fivet engine. Wartime conditions in France prevented deliveries of enough engines for production, so in 1919 Weller designed a six-cylinder motor. The lightweight, 1991-cc unit was made largely of aluminum, but with a cast iron head. It continued in production until the 1960s and, indeed, was the base motor for the AC Ace.

As is the case with any small automaker that lasts more than a few decades, the fortunes of AC Cars ebbed and flowed with the general economic times. Over the years, the company weathered changes in direction, management and ownership. It managed to survive the Depression by selling parts and assembling a handful of cars out of such stock; no formal production existed. World War II-era contracts proved profitable, as the company manufactured cabs for fire trucks, along with flamethrowers, aviation parts and cannons.

AC resumed production of automobiles in 1947. A car-hungry public bought what was offered: the 2 Liter model, in both drophead and saloon forms, that still used the six-cylinder engine designed in 1919. In the same year, AC began production of “invalid” cars for the British Ministry of Pensions; these were single-seaters powered by a BSA motor. (Production continued until 1976, though with a different motor in later years.)

In the 1920s, AC cars had been frequent visitors to the winner’s circle at Montlhery and Brooklands, and AC even won in the 1926 Monte Carlo Rally. Yet by the 1950s, the history of wins at speed trials, reliability runs and rallies was long a thing of the past. The solution was to produce a sports car, or rather, in this case, to find one to call its own.

Enter John Tojeiro. He was a young race car builder whose tubular-framed racer was fitted with a Bristol 2-liter, inline six-cylinder motor, rack-and-pinion steering, Girling hydraulic shock absorbers, four-wheel independent suspension, and Turner light alloy wheels. AC liked what it saw, so it bought one of the race cars from Tojeiro employee Vincent Davison to hastily develop into what would become the Ace. Fitted with a body that was a clone of the Ferrari Superleggera Touring 166 Mille Miglia Barchetta (little boat), Davison’s chassis appeared on the AC stand at the 1953 Earl’s Court Motor Show. Alongside it was an actual AC-built display chassis.

Production cars had a different treatment to the front and rear fenders than the show car; however, the look and feel of the Barchetta remained. Originally powered only by the Weller-designed motor, in 1956 the 120-hp Bristol unit was available as a £420 option. With a 4-speed manual transmission, front disc brakes, and a sub-2,000-pound weight achieved, in part, through the use of aluminum for the body, the Ace Bristol was a genuine sporting machine. In just a few short years, the car would become the basis for one of the best-known sports cars of all time, the Shelby Cobra. Of course, that is another story.

In a recent SCM market report, Richard Hudson-Evans described an Ace Bristol as “the thinking man’s Cobra.” While that may be a little hard on Cobra owners, the Ace Bristol is certainly a viable choice for the slippers, sheepdog and sherry set. Owning one of these cars is not just about going fast, it’s about getting there with flair, style and a good degree of grace, in one of the best cars ever produced by a cottage industry builder. I recently had the pleasure of appraising a collection that included an Ace Bristol, reminding me just how honest and pure these cars are.

This Ace Bristol was well worth the price paid—even better examples would command even more money. It’s often said that a rising tide floats all boats. With Shelby Cobra prices approaching the $200,000 level, better make that “a rising tide floats all AC Barchettas.”—Dave Kinney