1958 AC Ace Roadster

AC surprised the motoring world in 1953 by announcing its new Ace sports car. Retaining the company's Bristol-BMW derived 2-liter engine tuned to 85 horsepower, the chassis, and coachwork were startlingly modern with styling and design by John Tojeiro, whose inspiration, no doubt, came from the contemporary Ferrari Barchetta. This was a classic postwar English roadster: an all-independent suspension, a Spartan leather upholstered cockpit, full instrumentation, a four-speed gearbox, and, in English tradition, minimal weather protection. It had a top speed of 100 mph and could go from 0-60 mph in 11.5 seconds.

Chassis BEX 389 was dispatched from the United Kingdom on December 20th of 1957. It was sold by AC Imports of Arlington, Virginia, to a D.C. resident. In 1968 Gerald F. Curtin, VP of the petrochemicals division of DuPont purchased the car. The car was last registered in 1970. Mr. Curtin first registered the car on June 22, 1968, and then again in 1969 with the license plate expiring in March of 1970. For reasons unknown, it was put into storage for four decades until his death in 2010 when it was sold to the current owner. Only 689 were produced, and this one remains in its original unrestored condition.