AC Cars Ace Price Guide

The AC Ace is one of the most important British sports cars of the 1950s, and the car that — when Carroll Shelby bolted a Ford V8 into it — became the Cobra. But the Ace deserves recognition in its own right: a hand-built, lightweight roadster with a tubular chassis, independent suspension all round, and aluminium bodywork that was exquisitely beautiful.

The Car

Launched at the 1953 London Motor Show, the Ace was designed by John Tojeiro and used his tubular ladder-frame chassis with all-independent suspension by transverse leaf springs. The body was hand-formed aluminium over a framework of steel tubing and English ash. Three engine options were available across the Ace’s production life: AC’s own 2.0-litre overhead-cam straight-six (a design dating back to 1919, making it one of the longest-serving engines in automotive history), the BMW-derived Bristol D-Type six producing 125bhp, and from 1961 the 2.6-litre Ford Zephyr six in standard or Ruddspeed-tuned form. Around 223 Aces were built with the AC engine, 463 with the Bristol, and just 37 with the Ruddspeed Ford. The Ace-Bristol achieved notable competition success, finishing tenth overall at Le Mans in 1957 and eighth in 1958.

Buying

The Ace is a serious collector’s car. Bristol-engined cars are the most desirable and numerous. The AC-engined cars have a different character — less powerful but more mechanical and characterful, with that extraordinary pre-war-vintage engine singing along. The Ruddspeed Ford cars are the rarest. Corrosion in the tubular chassis is the primary structural concern. The ash framing can deteriorate if moisture has been allowed to penetrate. The aluminium body panels do not rust but can corrode at joints with dissimilar metals. The Ace evolved directly into the Cobra when Shelby fitted the Ford V8, and also spawned the Aceca hardtop coupe.