1963 AC Ace - RS 5032
According to the AC Owners’ Club, chassis RS5032 was despatched from the Works on 29th May 1963. Finished in Pearl Black with Red leather upholstery and originally road registered as ‘150 PH’, the car’s impressive specification included a curved (Cobra style) windscreen, Raymond Mays alloy cylinder head, triple SU carburettors, fibreglass hardtop and Ford Zephyr MKIII four-speed manual gearbox. A keen amateur driver who also campaigned a Kieft-Ford Formula Junior single-seater, first owner W.J. Williams used the Ace 2.6 for hillclimbing as did his immediate successor Dr Stuart Saunders. Acquired by the vendor’s late father during 1969 whose first job coincidentally had been in AC’s technical department, the two-seater was taken off the road a decade later and stripped pending a restoration that has yet to happen. A friend kindly agreed to store the chassis and front and rear clips in a barn he was renting but failed to notify the family when his landlord chose to develop the site. Previously shorn of its bonnet, boot, doors, interior, engine, gearbox, back axle, suspension, brakes, wheels, interior body panelling and all badging etc, the unidentified assembly was thus consigned to the W.J. & D.J. Mills scrapyard in East Suffolk. A recent conversation with a member of the Mills clan has confirmed that the chassis and front and rear clips caused quite some bafflement but were ultimately dismembered. Although, if the condition of the tubular steel chassis was anything like that of the remaining suspension components then its reusability, had its survived to the present day, would have been very doubtful!
An acknowledgement of Ken Rudd's involvement, the Zephyr powered cars carried 'RS' prefixes to their chassis numbers and could be had in five levels of Ruddspeed tuning. By utilising such 'goodies' as a Raymond Mays twelve-port aluminium cylinder head and triple Weber carburettors, a 'Stage 5' converted Ace 2.6 reputedly developed 170bhp and 154 lbft; outputs that at least one source claims were sufficient for 0-60mph in 6 seconds, a standing quarter mile time of 16.3 seconds and 135mph flat out. The ultimate development of the iconic AC Ace, the 2.6 would also prove by far the rarest. Produced for just 30 months or so, from mid-1961 until the end of 1963, a mere 37 examples were made with only 24 being to right-hand drive specification. As fast and well balanced as it was, the 2.6 became a slightly oddball choice once the brutally potent and now revered AC / Shelby Cobra came on stream in 1962-1963. The earlier design’s cause not being helped by its near identical looks.
Hillclimbed by its first and second keepers, W.J. Williams Esq and Dr Stuart Saunders
Current family ownership since 1969
Taken off the road in 1979 and stripped awaiting a restoration that has yet to happen
Chassis scrapped due to an unfortunate sequence of events but original engine, gearbox, differential, bonnet, boot, doors, dashboard, keys, hardtop, seats, internal body panels etc, etc
Auction: HandH, Lot 8 on Wed, 16th Mar 2022 at 13.00 at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, UK. SOLD for £202,500
We would love to hear from anyone has more information on the car or would like to add to the history please feel free to contact us here at Ruddspeed.
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