Topics

'Taking an evening spin in a 1928 AC Six', over the Wiltshire Downs, last week (taken on an iPhone!)
   
   Click the link:
   
   //[url]https://youtu.be/cYmsbY3DJqk[/url]

Two notable early AC cars at forthcoming auctions:
   
   (1) Bonhams have the 1913 AC, 10hp Fivet-engined (see fifteen postings down). Estimated hammer price of £25-28,000. To be sold on 3rd September at the 'Beaulieu Autojumble' sale.
   
   (2) Historics at Brooklands, have a 1922 AC 12/40, Anzani-engined with aluminium pointed-tail body (one of two survivors). Estimated hammer price of £37-42,000. To be sold on 20 August at the Brooklands track

There are 40 vintage AC Sixes on the ACOC register, of which 28 are certainly known to survive today, though less than 20 are roadworthy. This gathering of five cars, of various body styles, was last Sunday 15 May at Minterne House, Dorset. The meeting here was to celebrate the ninetieth anniversary of the Hon. Victor Bruce's winning of the 1926 Monte Carlo Rally in an AC. The invitation was from the Digby family who own the house and are relations of the Bruce family.
   
   Left to right: 1925 Aceca, 1927 2/3 seater, 1927 saloon, 1928 Montlhery-bodied, 1928 Aceca
   
   

Without doubt John Weller was an engineering genius.
   
   What happened to him after he left AC (no doubt due to differences with S F Edge) in 1922?

Looks like a nice four-cylinder vintage AC at auction later this month:
   
   http://www.hvauctions.com/Motor_details.php?motor=151_01.jpg&pid=151&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hvauctions.com%2Fmotor_list.php

A 1927 AC has been entered for the Peking-Paris endurance event!
   
   This is one hell of a motoring challenge, for the cars and the drivers. The route is more than 8500 miles, over an itinerary of 36 days, and the cars journey through China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, then into Europe through Poland, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland (and more) to end in Paris. You can imagine the state of many roads, let alone crossing desert and so on.
   
   The car is the 1927 AC saloon, with Weymann body, that was recently returned to the UK from South Africa (see photos in Vintage forum, under recent posting 'Two vintage AC's come home'). Steve Gray of Brooklands Cars has entered and I admire his courage and spirit! The event takes place June/July of next year so more to follow.....

A 1927 AC has been entered for the Peking-Paris endurance event!
   
   This is one hell of a motoring challenge, for the cars and the drivers. The route is more than 8500 miles, over an itinerary of 36 days, and the cars journey through China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, then into Europe through Poland, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland (and more) to end in Paris. You can imagine the state of many roads, let alone crossing desert and so on.
   
   The car is the 1927 AC saloon, with Weymann body, that was recently returned to the UK from South Africa (see photos under recent posting 'Two vintage AC's come home'). Steve Gray of Brooklands Cars has entered and I admire his courage and spirit! The event takes place June/July of next year so more to follow.....

1935 AC 16/66, 4-seater tourer, for sale (but price not shown):
   
   http://www.prewarcar.com/classifieds/ad184189.html

Two vintage AC's have been repatriated from South Africa to England. The first is the only surviving two-door saloon, a Weymann fabric-bodied car from 1927, that some may remember was for sale a few years back for £65,000. It is to be fettled and used for racing, and although this might surprise some this car is superficially similar to the Frazer-Nash saloon called 'The Owlet' (originally Weymann bodied also) which is raced successfully.
   
   The second car from South Africa is a 2/3 seater, in red and cream, and this has not been heard of for probably 30 years or more, but is recorded in the vintage register.
   
   Here's the AC saloon and the Frazer-Nash 'owlet'
   
   
   
   

A vintage six for sale (they don't come up often):
   
   http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AC-Vintage-1928-/331564185779?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4d32c3f8b3

Montlhery-bodied AC Six with wings/spare wheel/lamps removed, as per the Bruce's car which successfully broke records at Montlhery in 1927:
   
   
   
   Another nice AC Six, from 1928, at this year's event:
   

Surviving in Calcutta this 4-cylinder Royal is another unrecorded in the ACOC register. I've no idea why such a huge spotlight for the driver, maybe for spotting cows sitting in the road at night....or the occasional Tiger! Note also the serpent head horn.
   
   It does appear as if there's negative camber at the front – looking at the left front and right rear wheels maybe the springs have gone (due to the state of roads in India?). Second picture shows the same car with its British driver, not sure of the date but, no doubt, during the Raj.
   
   
   
   

St Luke's Garage was a small backstreet operation that commenced prior to the First World War and ceased trading in 1998. It is now a residential house. The garage was an Aladdin's Cave of spare parts, petrol pumps and all paperwork was stored on spikes on wooden blocks, each for the year concerned.
   
   With the garage's demise all the equipment was sold or chucked into the skip. There were some interesting documents from AC from the 20's and 30's. They included invoices for parts from Jock Henderson at AC (when pistons were 15/- each and cylinder head gaskets 8/6) and from the Hurlocks.
   
   Here's one below, an invoice from AC for £350.0.0, dated 13 January 1928, for the sale of a second-hand six-cylinder 4-seater (ch. 13215) with the part-ex being an AC Empire (ch. 9376). The car was to be repainted in Durobelle and some minor rectification work was needed before delivery to St Luke's and onto its new owner, Mr T C Currie of Cheltenham. Note that AC had a typewriter key for the AC logo and that the paperwork still did not reflect the 'new' company name.
   

Two exceptional concours vintage AC's, from the collection of John Moir, are to be sold by RM Auctions at Hershey, on 9/10th October.
   
   The first is a 1926 four-cylinder 12/24. A superb restoration, this car has an estimate of $60-80,000 (£37-50,000) excluding 10% buyers premium.
   
   http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1070534
   
   The second is a 1929 Six with a four-seater tourer body (one of only two known survivors). The restoration is remarkable, I can but imagine the time that has gone into getting this car in this show-winning condition. It will not appeal to everybody as it is in better condition, I think, than one leaving the factory at the time. Estimate is $100-150,000 (£62-93,000) excluding 10% buyers premium
   
   http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1070535
   
   To read the text there is a link to a digital catalogue on the RM site.
   
   More photos of the cars can be found on the Hemming's site. As an example:
   
   http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/ac/unspecified/1682834.html
   
   Plenty of photos are on both the above websites.

Keep an eye out for the vintage AC - the same 6-cylinder as used in Downton Abbey - which is used in the forthcoming new series of 'Peaky Blinders', the BBC2 gangster epic.

Here's another short piece of film footage from British Pathé, taken at Brooklands in 1921. It shows the AC driven by Brownsort and Noble attempting to beat the 24hr record (set by S F Edge in a Napier fourteen years earlier). There was fog on the second day, the car suffered a leaking fuel tank, then piston seizure (causing a con-rod to break) which put an end to the attempt.
   
   http://www.britishpathe.com/video/small-car-test/
   
   Note the mechanics in suits and ties and one bloke rocking the o/s front wheel....the Red Bull team have got nothing on these fellas at a 'pit stop' (!)
   
   The posting on the website implies the record was broken but actually this was not until May of the following year, another AC driven then by Joyce and Day.

Here's some vintage film footage by British Pathé of Mrs Bruce at the finishing line at Montlhéry in 1927, after record-breaking in the AC (15000 miles in 9 days at 68 mph):
   
   http://www.britishpathe.com/video/records-beaten-by-2-days/
   
   She didn't compete in racing overalls but preferred a pleated skirt complimented by a string of pearls (!)

The comedy series 'Ripping Yarns' (written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones) - all parody, old school days, derring-do, the British Empire etc - first shown in 1977, is being re-run on BBC4 on Thursday evenings. The episode last week, 'Murder at Moorstones Manor', had a vintage 4-cylinder in some scenes.
   
   Here's one of the frames:
   
   

Here's an early photograph of the AC Six engine. It's from about 1920/1921 and is certainly the earliest photo of the AC 2-litre engine that I've seen (and may be the first?). I don't think it's ever been published but may be wrong(?) Likely taken at a show, as it appears to be a display chassis, and there's a barrier in the background plus an AC 12/40.
   
   This is an interesting photo as it shows an early inlet manifold - one I've not seen on a car - which is more rounded than the mid-20's production models (which had 'squarer' angles). Note also, the magneto ignition and the rounded rocker box; later were more flatter-topped.
   
   

What's the chance of an updated vintage register? It's been very, very many years....