2.6 Ace or Early Cobra?

[ted]

Very distinctive wing mirrors. Parked outside Robert Patrick and Partner's garage.

Any ideas as to the identity of the car?

https://i.imgur.com/DYZRaq3.png

[nikbj68]

It certainly has Cobra arches, so I think it could be COB 6025, when it was registered JAP 1D, as I've seen a photo of it doing some trial in one of Trevor Legate's books!
Don't have books to hand now, so can't confirm, but it certainly looks like it's been mudplugging!

[AC Ace Bristol]

.
Ted & Nik
I tend to agree with Nik the arches are definitely Cobra,  I would rule out 2.6 Ace..  .. BUT Substitute it with the possibility that it could be Ace Bristol BE1199 , please refer to  earlier pictures published on the Forum and in ACtion of Twiggy standing on the  rear scuttle of the white cobra bodied Ace Bristol BE1199 .  dated 1966.
How many white AC Ace /Cobra were running around in mid/late 1960s with a aerial in the offside rear wing ?

Pity the photo is not high resolution and  that the angle the photo was taken doesn't allow to establish whether the fuel filler cap is located on the nearside rear wing
as per Ace or mid  rear scuttle as per Cobra.   :) :-\

Ted..  ..   can you confirm source and date of photo and do you happen to have any more photos of this teaser ?  ;)
Keith
 

[James Eastwood]

Is the exhaust the wrong side for a 2.6 as it exits the Ford (or Mays) head on the left hand side of the car?

Thus must be a Cobra?

[rstainer]

I'd bet with Nik and place the money on 6025, a SW7-based central London car. 6018 & 6038 are possibles, with 6048 and 6008 being very long odds outsiders.

The car's front wing mirrors would appear to be more decorative than functional.

R

[nikbj68]

I finally managed to locate Trevor Legate's "Cobra-The RealThing!" And although the wing mirrors aren't there, (as Robin suggests, maybe they found them neither useful, nor ornamental by 1971!) the radio aerial certainly is. If you look closely, you can see that by this time, 6025 had been converted into an "occasional +2"!

[nikbj68]

Russ Swift sent me a couple of period photos of an Ace which he used to own, BE1199, which was rebodied with a Cobra shell At Thames Ditton as a possible contender, but I think I can just about make out front & rear bumpers in Ted's pic, which aren't on the Acebra! The wheels appear to be a deeper dish than above too, which they would need to be to fill Cobra arches on an Ace chassis. But, the front overriders appear taller on Ted's pic than they do on the 'JAP1D' pic...or is that just a trick of the angle the photo was taken at...AAAaargh! 🧐

(I think we have decided that BE1199 is the 'Cobra' that Twiggy posed on in 1966, and that had a radio aerial then, but it's not evident in the pics from Russ...and since Russ sold it, the Cobra body has been removed and BE1199 now looks like an Ace again!)

[nikbj68]

Another we can knock off the list is COB 6018, which Keith confirms is still graced with its original paint, and no repairs, so although it has the radio aerial, there were no wing mirrors. 👍🏻
Keith's photos from 2003. Love that car!

[ted]

Good work finding those images of BE1199 Nick, the exhaust on the mystery car is definitely out the back rather than the side exit from the Bristol. I asked Tim about his car and he was fairly certain it wasn't his so happy to rule out 6018.

6025 does look very likely with the tall over riders and the full rear bumper as seen in the article you posted Nick.

[nikbj68]

Images and info on BE 1199 came from Russ Swift, and COB 6018 from Keith Lessiter, so all credit to them, I just put 'em here! 👍🏻😁