The AC story begins in 1902, when a London butcher, John Portwine, joined forces with a young engineer, John Weller.
They originally built a four seat Tourer exhibited at the 1903 Motor Show in the Crystal Palace, South London. 1913 brought about the first four wheel car, a four cylinder called the 10hp AC. While it was very impressive, it was much too costly to manufacture, so never went into production. Instead, the two began to produce a three wheeled delivery vehicle for commercial use. This was introduced in 1904, dubbed the Auto Carrier, and the two individuals formed Autocar and Accessories, Ltd.
By 1907 the delivery carton was replaced by a passenger seat and the Sociable, their first passenger car, was born. In 1911 the company was reformed under the name Autocarriers (1911) Ltd and in 1922 the company was again reformed by Selwyn Francis Edge, into AC Cars Limited.
Of course the most modern fame for AC came in the 1960's with the introduction of the Cobra by Carroll Shelby, who married the brute power of an American eight cylinder engine, to the light weight chassis/body of the AC Ace.
During 1964, the Cobra caused a sensation when testing on the then unrestricted M1 Motorway. It reached speeds up to 183mph. The UK Government worried by speed of the Cobra set about imposing a speed limit on UK Motorways of 70mph which stills stands today….unfortunately.
To view the AC cars for sale on I Want That One, click on the underlined AC models above.
>AC - Click the models underlined to view the available cars.
