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Some of you will be aware that this car has been living in my garage for many years in various states of disarray. Well, it now has an MOT, has been on the rolling road and apart from a slightly truculent gearbox runs like a dream.

I thought that I would write an occasional piece about the Aceca that tells some of the story of her 50 plus years of life and in particular the last 20 years. It is not intended as a diary of events but more as a haphazard collection of things that happened along the way. Hopefully it won’t take as long as the restoration!

The Aceca was first seen at the 1954 Earls Court Motor Show and was described by Autocar as “quite one of the most beautiful cars at the show”. It was the Coupe version of the AC Ace which had first appeared the year before.

The cars were expensive, in the same league as the Aston Martin DB2/4 and Porche 356 but it was soon realised that they were potentially great sports racers, especially when fitted with the Bristol 100D engine. In following years the Ace and the Aceca chalked up significant wins in production car racing in the USA, UK and at Le Mans 24 Hrs where in 1959 an Ace won the 2 litre class in the race won by Aston Martin which was driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori. Carroll Shelby of course went on to develop the ultimate AC the mighty V8 Cobra.

Our Aceca was first registered on the 5th April 1956 and delivered to a Mr Patten. I suspect that date was for tax reasons!. She was built with an AC 2 litre straight six engine but within 2 months London County Council (LCC) records show that it had been changed for a Bristol 100D2 engine. There is no record of what that change of mind cost, or what the wife said!. The engine change may mean that she is the earliest Bristol engined Aceca as the first production car to leave the factory in this specification is recorded as July 1956. The purchaser seems to have had some influence with the factory at Thames Ditton as the car was also fitted with disc brakes, another option that did not appear until later.

The Bristol engine itself has an interesting history in that it started life in Germany before WWII

The history of the car’s owners is fully documented in a letter of 1964 from the LCC together with a record of a replacement engine in 1963. Its sporting history is beginning to look quite interesting. In the article in the October 2004 edition of ACtion there is a photograph of the car competing in the ACOC sprint at Brands Hatch in 1956. Far more interesting is the fact that it came second in class, to a works TR at the 1957 Tulip Rally, a very prestigious rally in those days (Paddy Hopkirk was third!). I am looking for further competition history.

From 1964 until 1972 the car was owned by a Victoria Webb. A comprehensive record of all the work carried out and parts fitted in that period is handwritten in a brown lined notebook including a sad entry that says “hole in No6 piston, no money, car taken off the road”. Details of an expensive sounding rebuild by Anthony Crooks, Bristol Engine specialists follows.

At the end of this period the whole story becomes a bit personal. The car’s ownership appears to have transferred to Mr Webb as part of a divorce settlement.

Many years later in 1994 I received a letter from Lady Victoria Cross (honest!) previously Victoria Webb, enquiring of the cars welfare. It appears that it was agreed that she should have first refusal on the Aceca if her ex husband decided to sell it. However as she succinctly put it “the b------d sold it to somebody else”. That somebody else was Doug Buss who paid £400 for it!. Lady Victoria was delighted to hear that the Aceca was being restored, hopefully she said to the gorgeous blue that it was when she had it, another story for later.

To be continued – Colin