One to Buy: ex-Henry Black 1959 AC Ace Bristol
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Two years after the first production-ready Ace had emerged from AC’s Thames Ditton factory, renowned engineer and amateur racing driver Ken Rudd debuted his Bristol-powered example at Goodwood in April 1956.
That weekend, Rudd swept the rest of the field aside to take a dominant win and, within a few months, AC had decided to make the Bristol engine available to customers for use in both the Ace Roadster and Aceca Coupe.
During the years that followed, Bristol-engined Aces and Acecas went on to score myriad high profile victories in races and rallies to include a quintet of back-to-back SCCA Productions Sports Car Championships and a brace of top ten finishes at the Le Mans 24 Hours to include a class win in 1959.
Because it offered the perfect blend of usability and performance, a good number of Bristol-engined Aces and Acecas saw some degree of competition action, just like chassis BEX1044 which is currently on offer at the Thiesen Automobile showroom in Hamburg.
Ordered by Henry Black of Wilmette, Illinois, with practically all the competition options that AC offered at the time, BEX1044 was imported to the USA via Black’s local distributor, Imperial Motors also of Wilmette. Henry Black went on to race the car in a number of local SCCA events up until 1963, it then passed to the first of several subsequent owners (all documented) before winding up in the renowned Shelby American Collection.
BEX1044 returned to Europe in 2021, since which time it has undergone a major service in preparation for its next custodian.
