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« on: May 22, 2013, 18:10:01 »
I just thought I would clarify something about BEX 437, as its original owner, Bob Constabaris, is no longer with us.
As some of you know, my Ace, AEX 443, got BEX 437's gearbox, instruments, exhaust, badges and 100 D-2 motor (upgraded to "S" and beyond in 1960-61). The engine swap occurred in the late 1960s, once Constabaris had stopped racing his Ace and handed it over to his wife in their divorce settlement. She promptly sold it and that's when the car's "Cobratisation" with a GM 283 began. I know this from having interviewed Constabaris on three occasions, plus I once spent the better part of a day doing research through the files of the Sports Car Club of British Columbia, which indicated that all of Constabaris' racing had been done with the original Bristol D-2 #804 motor, in racing categories E,D,C and even B! He never raced his Ace with an American V-8. Where things did get a bit confusing was as of 1968, when Constabaris acquired a single-seater racer, but kept the original racing number he had used with his Ace-Bristol. In most entries only his name and racing number are mentioned, leading one to inadvertently assume that he continued racing BEX 437 for a while--which was not the case. Adding a bit to the confusion surrounding Constabaris' ownership of BEX 437, is that quite a few years later he bought another Ace-Bristol. He told me he had missed his original one a lot, except that this second one was never raced. He would only drive it in the streets. I can remember seeing this cream-coloured one parked outside one of his Mr. Mike's restaurants, on Granville and 70th in Vancouver. This was in the late 1970s.
When I aquired AEX 443 with BEX 437's drivetrain in 1985 I knew nothing about AC prefixes. Several mechanics who saw the car's upgraded D-2 kept saying: "Wow! That's Bob Constabaris' Westwood racer". For years I thought I had his car, until gradually I started learning more and more, and doing more and more digging. Now that BEX 437 has surfaced, my car's amalgamated double identity and history is now settled.
Cheers!
Laurence Kent