AC town car - 1970s

[Harrier]

Happy New Year to all.
   
   I wonder if anyone knows anything more about the 'town car' AC planned in the early 1970s?
   
   I assume it led to the Sociable and Petite prototypes shown here:
   http://istenbizony.hu/tag/sociable/
   
   I assume the three wheeler was based on the Model 70 Invacar mechanicals that AC designed and built, although wih a possible Bristol engine rather than Steyr Puch?
   
   I know these were not the type of cars AC's image relied on, but my interest is in how they kept the business alive in that period. The picture of the Diablo/3000ME prototype amid Invacar doors shown here:
   
   http://www.ac3000me.com/ac3000me/images/stories/site/production-05.jpg
   
   is illuminating, but maybe there were plans for a wider family of vehicles?

[ACOCArch]

Originally posted by Harrier
   
HI wonder if anyone knows anything more about the 'town car' AC planned in the early 1970s?
   
   
   AC experimented with both 3 and 4-wheeled town cars in the 1970s. The projects came to nought.
   
   The 3-wheeler AC Petite was a successful 1950s project - more details including the financial significance were summarised in ACtion Archive dated July 2013
   
   With Cobra and AC 289 Sports' production all but finished, and only a handful of AC 428s being made each year, invalid carriages and general engineering were the Company's main sources of income between 1967 and 1978.
   
   Invalid carriage production was terminated by the Government in 1978. AC 3000ME production started at about the same time.

[administrator]

The Town Car prototypes are illustrated in the Taylor and Burns picture book on ACs.  I understand that they survive and are now in a collection in the USA.