The AC
Aceca-Bristol
AC's finest, the Bristol-engined grand tourer, 1956 to 1963, just 169 built.
Why the Bristol-engined car is the most celebrated Aceca of them all
Fit a Bristol two-litre six, a race-bred descendant of the pre-war BMW 328 engine, into AC's hand-built aluminium coupé, and you have the car enthusiasts have always cherished above every other Aceca. The Bristol unit transformed the Thames Ditton grand tourer into a genuine 120-mph continental express: smoother, quicker and more eager to rev than the AC-engined car, with a hard-edged competition character that no amount of civilising ever quite removes.
Just 169 were built between 1956 and 1963. Each was assembled by hand in Surrey, a tubular steel chassis, an ash frame, aluminium panels beaten over wooden bucks, and finished to a standard that put it on level terms with the Aston Martin DB2/4 of the day, at considerably less weight. It is, quite simply, the finest Aceca AC ever made.
Specification
Figures vary a little between period road tests, state of tune and surviving works records. The ranges above reflect the accepted spread across the seven-year production run.
Explore the Aceca-Bristol
UBR 135, 1958 Aceca-Bristol
A matching-numbers 1958 Aceca-Bristol with a six-decade unbroken history and a Bristol six rebuilt by Stanton Motorsport with Cosworth pistons to c. 140 bhp.
Read the featureThe Bristol Engine
From Rudolf Schleicher's ingenious BMW 328 head to war reparations and the offside of a Thames Ditton engine bay: the two-litre six that made the car.
Read the deep-diveAceca-Bristol in depth
Production years, coachwork, mechanical specification and the details that separate a BE from a BEX chassis.
Open the detail pageAll three variants compared
See the Aceca-Bristol alongside the AC-engined car and the rare 2.6 in a single specification table.
See the comparisonChassis numbers & notable cars
Decode the AE / BE / BEX / RS prefix system and read about famous Aceca-Bristols including the Ghia-Aigle and Zagato bodies.
Browse the notable cars