Topic: AC Ace re-interpretation by Autokraft

[grobmotorix]

Who knows this vehicle?

[navara]

something to do with AC?

[grobmotorix]

Sorry for the late reply.

LOCKED for you! You´re on to something.....

[navara]

Please unlock it I'm happy for others to guess along.
I thought it was a proposal made by Ford, for an AC.
It's not the one Ghia made.

[grobmotorix]

Well, O.K. , you were right with AC so try again.

But it is open for all others again now, too.

[grobmotorix]

Experts might just need minutes to identify this one.

[Carnut]

It's an attempt to revive the AC Ace name, from the early eighties.
Believe it had only 2.8 litre V6 and received a less than enthusiastic reception when shown...  Only this one was made, then they developed a different car altogether which went into limited production in the 1990's.

So far I haven't been able to find any mention of it on the 'net but I'll keep looking!

[grobmotorix]

LOCKED for you!

It s a modern AC Ace, but the building company had another name....

Tell me this company name and the point is yours.

[Carnut]

Was it Autokraft's first attempt?

[grobmotorix]

That´s it!

[ImpishGrin]

I don't think it's necessary to badge this car as Autokraft, as Autokraft was the name of the company that acquired AC trademark in 1986. So technically it was simply an AC Ace.

[Carnut]

I don't think it's necessary to badge this car as Autokraft, as Autokraft was the name of the company that acquired AC trademark in 1986. So technically it was simply an AC Ace.

You may be right.
If I remember correctly there was a dispute between Autokraft's founder and original owner Brian Angliss and Ford, who had bought Autokraft, over the use of the Cobra name for his AC Cobra replicas.  Maybe it also affected whether Autokraft could use the AC name as well; I don't remember the facts sufficiently well..

[ImpishGrin]

In 1986 Brian Angliss' Autokraft bought 49% of AC Cars (Autokraft was building Cobra replicas since 1982), the remaining 51% went (through someone whose name I don't remember) to Ford. The above proposal was Ford's new Ace from 1986, based on Scorpio with 4wd and a Ford V6.
Angliss didn't like the direction Ford was pushing in and he commissioned IAD to completely redesign this Ace. Ford finally sold their stakes in 1992 and the new Ace (known as the Brooklands Ace) went into production in 1994.
As for the name problms, it was about Cobra in particular, not AC. Carroll Shelby moaned a lot about AC using the Cobra name on his cars and persuaded Ford into filing a lawsuit against the next owner, Alan Lubinsky. AC lost and since around 2001 (I'm not sure, I may be off a few years here) the cars have been known simply as AC MkV and such.

[grobmotorix]

Thank you both for this detailed information!

That´s why I do love autopuzzles.com.

You´ll never know enough....

[Carnut]

This car was auctioned at the Dorset Vintage & Classic Auctions 2 days ago, but I don't know the result.
Its estimate was £30000/35000.
Interestingly, it was described as "1986 AC Ace Prototype - Ace of Spades"
I certainly don't recall it being called 'Ace of Spades' at the time so maybe they are getting confused with a Lea-Francis revival around that time which had that moniker?  Also there was a Giugiaro Ace of Spades, one of his 'Ace of' series during the 1970s.

When the result appears I'll try to remember to post whether it sold and if so for how much.

[Allemano]

I know I saw it somewhere before, but couldn't recall..

It can be found in 'A-Z of Sportscars' by M. Lawrence.