Lot 101: AC Aceca

This green AC Aceca was displayed at the 1999 British International Motorshow, where its graceful flowing lines attracted a considerable amount of attention. The car was designed in-house by AC's own design team, the brief being to create a sports coupe that could accommodate four people in complete comfort. They achieved their aim as the AC Aceca offered more room than both its intended rivals, the Porsche 911 and Aston Martin DB7 of the late 1990's. Powered by a big Ford 4.6 -litre V8 engine that was originally intended to produce around 350bhp, the Aceca would have been able to offer storming performance with a 0- 60mph time of 6.1 seconds and a top speed limited to around 155 mph.

The AC Aceca was generously equipped with a full leather interior, ABS brakes (not that common at the time), air conditioning, a top-of-the-range Philips stereo system and satellite navigation this last being decidedly avant-garde for 1999. AC planned to price the Aceca at around �75,000, and even today it remains a good looking car. The dusty prototype then passed through the hands of dealers Duncan Hamilton and Co to an American collector and then as a 'barn find' to the current owner, and so the car was brought back on a trailer to his workshop, where a skilled team were keen to begin restoration work.

The owner remarks This car is a proper prototype; it even has some 4x2 wood in its floor pan! When we acquired the Aceca it had no keys and no prototype specification from AC. Our workshop team have all the necessary skills to carry out car restoration work and have been very keen to restore the AC. It's taken a year to source new ECU management systems from two suppliers and over the past 15 months we've fitted the car with a plush new cream leather interior and re-sprayed its fibreglass bodywork.

This car represents an interesting development in the story of AC cars; apparently Carroll Shelby knew of the car and its restoration work and was reportedly expressed and interest in acquiring it for his own collection - allegedly!