AC Brooklands Ace

Do you know the AC Ace? As a base vehicle for the Shelby Cobra, this British sports car was able to build up a certain notoriety. The Ace was built between 1953 and 1963, and we recently reported on the convoluted company history of AC Cars here in our online magazine. When reading about it, it becomes clear that ownership often changed and that at times brand and manufacturing rights weren’t held by the same person. This was finally resolved by Brian Angliss, the founder of Autokraft. He had been manufacturing Cobra replicas with his company since 1982. These cars enjoyed high popularity among fans due to their high quality and attention to detail. This led to his being allowed to use the AC brand name officially a few years later. In 1986, he finally acquired the complete brand rights and was also able to secure all production rights. At the same time, he had a new sports car developed to give the AC brand a new lease of life.

Customers didn’t like Ace of Spades

Since he had built up a close business partnership with Ford and the American company had probably also contributed money to the development, the concept car named Ace of Spades was based on Ford technology components. The entire platform, including all-wheel drive, came from the Sierra XR 4×4, which also provided the six-cylinder engine and the manual transmission. Above this was a relatively angular body with a removable targa roof. However, the appearance didn’t find much favor with potential customers. Likewise, the engine appeared to some observers to be too weak-chested to do justice to a modern AC. So it was back to the drawing board. Support for the design was sought and found at IAD. At the same time, an independent steel chassis was created with a 13-centimeter shorter wheelbase. This also eliminated the two rear seats that the Ace of Spades still had due to its Sierra base.

V8 instead of V6 engine

In 1991, the newly developed vehicle debuted as a roadster with a three-liter Ford V6 engine. It was another two years before production, during which the engine was replaced once again. When the new AC Brooklands Ace finally rolled out to customers in 1993, a 228-hp eight-cylinder engine was under the hood. This power came from five liters of displacement. The engine was known from the Ford Mustang GT. Aluminium was used for the bodywork, but was now much more pleasing to the eye. In addition, the vehicle now had an electric soft top mechanism, air conditioning and heated seats. However, with a new price of around £ 50,000, the Brooklands Ace was also on a par with the Mercedes-Benz 500 SL. AC showed chassis number 001 in 1991, but then used this car for the necessary crash tests for registration. These took place on the MIRA test site.

Auction at Bonhams

Chassis number 002, the dark blue car in our second picture gallery, was on display at the Earls Court Motor Show in London in 1993. It subsequently appeared on the cover of the December issue of Car magazine and the June issue of World Sports Cars. Unlike later production cars, #002 still had a manual soft top. This weekend, the car goes under the hammer at Bonhams as part of the Goodwood Members’ Meeting. It had belonged to the same owner for the past 29 years and is now expected to fetch between £ 20,000 and £ 30,000. A second example from 1995 from the same ownership (shown in first picture gallery) was supposed to go under the hammer in the same auction, but was withdrawn. In total, only 46 examples of the Brooklands Ace were made until 1996. After financial problems and a change of ownership, the company re-established itself as AC Car Ltd. The Ace went into production again with some modifications, but only another 12 units were produced until 2000.

Images: Bonhams