So what was the "A" in "CSX"?

[SunDude]

Like many of you surely have, I've read that the "CSX" prefix in Cobra chassis numbers stood for:
   
       C - the third in the AC Ace series
       S - Shelby contract
       X - export
   
   ...and of course there were COB numbers for British market cars and COX numbers for European export market cars.
   
   I'm pretty sure that the AC Ace-Bristol cars had chassis numbers starting with BEX, or something like that.  So, which cars had their chassis numbers beginning with "A"?  Did the early AC-engined Aces use a B or A chassis number?  Or was A used for a different car altogether?

[bex316]

While I'm not sure the C in CSX stands for 3rd series or Carroll or Cobra or something else I can confirm the AC engined Aces and Acecas have chassis numbers starting with A, i.e. AE for RHD cars and AEX for LHD (export) cars. Likewise Bristol engined cars start with BE or BEX.
   
   Jerry

[jrlucke]

I'm not sure the S = Shelby as the 2.6 engined cars carried the prefix RS and RSX and preceeded Shelbys. It possibly indicates the series having the small nose and the Zephyr engine allowed a lower profile.
   
   The R would indicate Ken Rudd engineered I believe.
   
   John

[administrator]

As Jerry notes above,'X' = LHD not export.  There were RHD export cars for markets such as Malaya.

[bex316]

The RS in the Ace 2.6 chassis number stands for RuddSpeed as far as I know. The admin is right, X is probably for export but only if all home market would have been RHD (well that's almost true) and all export cars would have been LHD which is not entirely true! So L would have been better than X.
   
   Jerry