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The Aceca (pronounced "A-See-Ka") is a closed
coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...
from the British AC Cars
AC Cars, originally incorporated as Auto Carriers Ltd., is a British specialist automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest independent car makers founded in Britain. As a result of bad financial conditions over the years, the company was re ...
company, produced from 1954 until 1963. The car originally had an AC engine but the similar Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
-engined Aceca-Bristol was also available alongside the original from 1956 to 1963 when production of that engine ceased. A few cars were built from 1961 to 1963 with a 2553 cc tuned Ford Zephyr
The Ford Zephyr is an executive car manufactured by Ford of Britain from 1950 until 1972. The Zephyr and its luxury variants, the Ford Zodiac and Ford Executive, were the largest passenger cars in the British Ford range from 1950 until their r ...
engine and sold as the Aceca 2.6.
Based on the open two-seat AC Ace, the Aceca was a hand-built grand tourer
A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving with performance and luxury. The most common format is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with ...
in the British tradition, with ash wood and steel tubing used in their construction. One notable feature was the hatchback
A hatchback is a car body style, car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to the main interior of the car as a cargo area rather than just to a separated trunk. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second-row sea ...
at the rear, making the Aceca only the second car, after the 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4, to incorporate this element.
151 Acecas, 169 Aceca-Bristols and 8 Ford-engined models had been built when production halted in 1963. As with the Ace, AC used chassis numbers beginning with AE for AC-engined cars, BE for Bristol-engined ones, and RS for those equipped with the Ford unit. An "X" following the first two letters indicated an export model.
The main difference between the Aceca and Aceca-Bristol was the engine. Both used a straight-6
A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...
unit, but the Aceca shared its , overhead camshaft AC engine with the lighter AC Ace, while the Aceca-Bristol used a 125 hp (93 kW) "D-Type" 2.0 L (1971 cc/120 in3) unit sourced from Bristol Cars
Bristol Cars was a British manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars headquartered in Bristol, Bristol, England. It was formed from the car division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company after the World War II, Second World War and later became indepe ...
. The Aceca-Bristol was also available with a milder "B-Type" Bristol engine of 105 hp (78 kW). The Bristol specification added $1000 to the Aceca's $5,400 price tag in the United States. In the UK, the basic car cost £1722.
The front-end styling of the Ace and Aceca reportedly traces back to a design done by Pinin Farina for AC in the late 1940s. An alternative theory is that it was inspired by the Ferrari Barchetta of the day. The car is rather light owing to a tubular frame, aluminium engine block and aluminium body panels. Large 16" spoked road wheels and near 50/50 weight distribution allowed exceptional handling on substandard road surfaces. Later Acecas feature front-wheel disc brakes (added in 1957), while all share transverse leaf spring IRS, articulated rear half-axles, worm-gear steering, an optional overdrive on 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears, curved windscreen, and leather-covered bucket seats. The suspension is independent at the front and rear using transverse leaf springs.
The AC Aceca featured in the UK " Car SOS" programme (series 4 episode 2).
Aceca-Bristol
The in-line six Bristol engine fitted to the Aceca-Bristol was based on a design from BMW with cast iron block and aluminium cylinder head. It has a single camshaft with pushrods running vertically to a rocker shaft on the inlet side of the engine and further horizontal pushrods running in 6 tubes over the top of the engine in order to reach the exhaust rockers. The two inclined rocker covers give the engine a similar appearance to an overhead - camshaft arrangement. Three inline Solex downdraft carburettors were bolted directly to the cylinder head casting using small adaptor plates.
References
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z16796/AC-Aceca.aspx {{DEFAULTSORT:Ac Aceca Aceca Coupés Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Cars introduced in 1954 1960s cars