Historic photos of AC's!

[Andrey1976b]

and new photo )

[Old Crock]

What a fantastic looking AC Six..........but then I would say that as I own it!

[Andrey1976b]

There are many photos of him on the Internet. )

[Andrey1976b]

Another mystery

[Old Crock]

This nice 1927 AC Six 2/3-seater was on display at the excellent Caramulo Museum, Portugal (situated in the Serra do Caramulo hills, between Lisbon and Porto). It had been there for some 17 years, on long-term loan, when it was offered for sale last year. However, it still shows on the museum's website, so may may not have sold. It is chassis no, 13723 (not 13725, as shown on the ACOC register - there are many errors on this register and it's about time another updated version was issued).

[Andrey1976b]

This nice 1927 AC Six 2/3-seater was on display at the excellent Caramulo Museum, Portugal (situated in the Serra do Caramulo hills, between Lisbon and Porto). It had been there for some 17 years, on long-term loan, when it was offered for sale last year. However, it still shows on the museum's website, so may may not have sold. It is chassis no, 13723 (not 13725, as shown on the ACOC register - there are many errors on this register and it's about time another updated version was issued).

Thank you!

I am currently working on my registry

[Andrey1976b]

one more photo

[Old Crock]

I don't know the chassis number of this AC 4-cylinder (likely a Royal) and it is not recorded on the current ACOC register - there are no cars shown to be in India (and this one has been there a very long time). I do have some other period photographs of it though (attached):

Photo 1 - the car showed a slightly different registration number (BLA 7266) when this photo was taken in Calcutta (now Kolkata) during the war years. It has a headlight blackout cover so would date after late-1942 when the Japanese started bombing the city.

Photos 2 and 3 - taken at the same event (different years?) as in the previous posting by Andrey, now showing WBA 7266 but same car. Enormous spotlight fitted, no doubt to spot elephants, cows, donkeys and the many other things on Indian roads. Lots of horns fitted to move them along, plus getting cars and people out off the way - one horn is a nice 'boa constrictor-type'. The suspension looks decidedly dodgy and note the negative camber.

Photo 4 - another shot from India of the car, before all the 'accessories' were added.

I would suspect the car is still around 'somewhere' in India, knowing first-hand the ability of the local mechanics in keeping old cars on the road (by whatever means) and that this 'historic' vehicle would not be allowed to be exported now.

[Jam2]

Interesting set of photos, I see they say “1919” and “only car of it’s kind” are either of those comments likely to be true?

[Andrey1976b]

I don't know the chassis number of this AC 4-cylinder (likely a Royal) and it is not recorded on the current ACOC register - there are no cars shown to be in India (and this one has been there a very long time). I do have some other period photographs of it though (attached):

Photo 1 - the car showed a slightly different registration number (BLA 7266) when this photo was taken in Calcutta (now Kolkata) during the war years. It has a headlight blackout cover so would date after late-1942 when the Japanese started bombing the city.

Photos 2 and 3 - taken at the same event (different years?) as in the previous posting by Andrey, now showing WBA 7266 but same car. Enormous spotlight fitted, no doubt to spot elephants, cows, donkeys and the many other things on Indian roads. Lots of horns fitted to move them along, plus getting cars and people out off the way - one horn is a nice 'boa constrictor-type'. The suspension looks decidedly dodgy and note the negative camber.

Photo 4 - another shot from India of the car, before all the 'accessories' were added.

I would suspect the car is still around 'somewhere' in India, knowing first-hand the ability of the local mechanics in keeping old cars on the road (by whatever means) and that this 'historic' vehicle would not be allowed to be exported now.

Thank you!

[Old Crock]

Interesting set of photos, I see they say “1919” and “only car of it’s kind” are either of those comments likely to be true?

Very difficult to precisely age this car as so many things have been changed and moved around, not unusual for India. Some examples; it has two-panel windscreen whereas very early post-WW1 cars had single pane, the sidelights are on the wings (which themselves look fabricated) when early post-war cars had sidelamps at the windscreen frame. The running boards look 'early' yet the wire-wheels are clearly much later. Bumpers are a random addition, of course. The AC radiator logo script is not the early-type and dates from late '23 onwards, the ventilators (and their shape) are also from 1924. Horns at the windscreen may be replicating an early fashion, and of value in India anyway.

One other thing to add. Straight after the war some Fivet engines were found and brought back from France to start manufacture again - these cars in 1919, the year quoted, were bodied in the prewar Edwardian-style, very different to this car. This was though the start of using Anzani engines and the car bodies rapidly progressed e.g. the scuttle shape as per this car.

The car just looks to be early 1920's to me, maybe 1924 (or so).

[Andrey1976b]

About this car, is anything known to a respected society?

Most often referred to as - 1922 Joyce-AC

[Andrey1976b]

Do you think it's the same car?

[jonto]

I think Joyces 100 in the hour car, used the Hawker chassis, with parallel front springs, and the 16v engine, certainly the Hawker body.  The lightweight sprinter had splayed front springs, one of the 200 mile race chassis, perhaps a mix of parts by this time. One chassis went to Raymond Mays for the supercharged hill climb car, this may have been the ex Hawker chassis, must look out my pictures. The lightweight sprinter was sold to Jack Ackhead, a garage proprieter at Southport, and raced on the sands. Did the sprinter have two incarnations, single and two seater, or were there two cars built? One of the three 200mile race cars was crashed, upside down off the track at Brooklands, so may have been then uncerviceable, leaving two more cars to use for later events.
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Is this chassis number unknown? 

One of the AC works racecars, here being driven by John Joyce on the Brooklands Test Hill in 1925.

This is the same car that averaged 100mph for an hour at Brooklands driven by Joyce, (which means, at times, it was likely to have been travelling at around 115mph). The car also contested the Junior Car Club 200-mile racing in 1922 and ’24, finishing third on both occasions. It won the Brighton Speed Trials two years in a row and held the test hill record for many years.

AC sold the car in the mid/late 1920's and it was only used for a couple more years. From 1929 to the early 1960s it was left in storage before being dug out to go back racing again in the hands of Denis Jenkinson (the same, who co-partnered Moss in the Mercedes 300SLR in the Mille Miglia).

This was another car that was displayed at the ACOC centenary event in Thames Ditton.

I’ve never seen a chassis number so assume, as one of a small batch of race-cars, it was effectively a one-off (the chassis was far from being ‘standard’ anyway being drilled everywhere for lightness).

[jonto]

I've had a look in my pictures, the Mays car has splayed from springs, so a 200 mile race chassis, as can be seen in the picture. Another picture shows Joyce in the lightweight at the far end of the Brooklands finishing straight, the fourth picture shows the car after a hicup in the hands of Ackhead at southport.