Solved - NEH 1917: Post-Gachnang AC Ace-Bristol Le Mans - 1960

[Carnut]

What's this, from when - for 1 point?:

ANYONE FOUND GIVING ANSWERS GLEANED BY USING GOOGLE SEARCH BY IMAGE WILL BE BANNED FOR AN INDEFINITE PERIOD!

[frederick59]

looks like a Cobra based car

[Carnut]

looks like a Cobra based car

Close but no cigar (yet...!)

[frederick59]

is it from the UK?

[Carnut]

is it from the UK?

Mostly, although it's thought the bodywork isn't..

[Carnut]

Experts?

[shamrock]

AC ACE BOUGHT BY THE GACHANG BROTHERS CRASHED AND REBODIED AS IN HE PHOTO , RACED AT LE MANS , BOUGHT IN 1960

[Carnut]

AC ACE BOUGHT BY THE GACHANG BROTHERS CRASHED AND REBODIED AS IN HE PHOTO , RACED AT LE MANS , BOUGHT IN 1960

You mean this car (also pictured below):

www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=9487.0

It is indeed the same car, but not the body the Gachnang Brothers fitted if you look closely.
So where does this body fit in?
Locked for you..

[Carnut]

Lock will be lifted in 24 hours if no reply...

Something interesting I learned today:
Sebastian Buemi, current F1 racing driver, is the grandson of Georges Gachnang..

[shamrock]

will reply shortly

[shamrock]

the body mods were made in the 70s when the car arrived in French historic racing , drive my Michel Larive , it has been sugeste that Drogo may have done the wiork but this has not been confirmed .

[Carnut]

the body mods were made in the 70s when the car arrived in French historic racing , drive my Michel Larive , it has been sugeste that Drogo may have done the wiork but this has not been confirmed .

Well, I've given you the point and we'll bring this one to a close, although definitive answers seem hard to come by.
According to most of what I've read the bodywork mods were done whilst the car was still in Switzerland after the Gachnang brothers had finished with it, and before it arrived in France.  As you say there has been mention of Drogo having done the work, which might only be because it looks rather like Drogo Ferrari bodies, but there is no actual evidence of that being true.  However, if someone in Switzerland wanted such a mod done then he might well have gone to someone like Drogo to do it.  The trouble is, according to the info out there, the 22-year-old Swiss guy who bought it and raced it in Switzerland was somewhat impecunious and could probably not have afforded to pay Drogo to do it...
The plot is thick and I'm not 100% sure the truth is anywhere to be found.
Below is a picture of the car today, being rebuilt back to its Drogo-like shape at a bodyshop in the UK.
I would have liked someone to mention the chassis number BEX289, as that is what the car is generally referred to as in AC circles.