AC MA-200
Many car fans probably only know AC Cars for the base vehicle of the legendary Shelby Cobra, the AC Ace. However, this brand has been around for 121 years. In the early days, the company had no name at all. The Weller brothers from the London district of West Norwood created a 20-horsepower automobile that debuted at the Crystal Palace Motor Show in 1903. As financier and business partner they had won the butcher John Portwine, who considered the planned production costs of the car to be too high. Instead, he ordered a three-wheeled (two front, one rear) delivery vehicle from the brothers, the Auto-Carrier. For this, they founded “Autocars and Accessoires” in 1904. Three years later, the Sociable appeared, a passenger tricycle with a third seat instead of the transport box. By renaming the company “Auto Carriers Ltd.”, the previous model abbreviation A.C. became the brand abbreviation in 1911. From then on, it was also used in a round logo. Until 1913, only three-wheelers were produced.
AC often got into financial troubles
Over the decades, AC Cars (name from 1922) developed into a manufacturer of sporty automobiles. Due to continuous financial difficulties, there were several changes of ownership in the period between the two World Wars. After World War 2 until 1976, invalid vehicles were produced for the British market. This stabilized the company’s financial situation, which had long been under strain. From 1947, sports cars were also produced again. The Ace, which Carroll Shelby finally chose as the basis for the Cobra, made its debut in 1953, followed a year later by the Aceca coupé version. There were also the Greyhound, 428 Frua and 3000 ME models. From the mid-1980s, AC again slid into problems. The Hurlock family first sold the production rights to Scotland and finally also their remaining shares to an investor. This split caused problems that weren’t resolved until years later. Brian Angliss, managing director of Autokraft, took over the brand and manufacturing rights. In 1993 he presented a new AC Ace.
MA-200 developed as Ace successor
After only about 50 cars built, AC went out of business again in 1996. Alan Lubinsky, a South African businessman, took over the company and continued building the Ace and the Mk IV (a Cobra replica). In 2002, the company headquarters moved to Malta, then back to St Kitts in the UK in 2008. To this day, Cobras continue to be made as the Mk V and Mk VI. The AC 378 Zagato presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 2012 never made it into production. The same was true of the MA-200 project 50 years earlier, which was developed as a possible successor to the Ace, which was already around ten years old by then. Zdislaw Teofil Marzewski, a former designer of MIG fighters, created a space frame chassis and a beautiful aluminium body. The design shows elements of Frua designs, though there is no evidence of collaboration. It wasn’t until 1965 that Frua and AC collaborated. The design of the suspension with coil springs and internally mounted disc brakes was based on Formula 1 cars of the time.
Completely restored, for sale at DK Engineering
According to initial plans, the MA-200 prototype was to have a six-cylinder boxer engine. During the development phase, however, the company switched to the 289 Ford V8 engine from the Cobra. The completed car was effectively a precursor to the later AC 428, but it never went into production. Instead, the then AC chairman William ‘Derek’ Hurlock used the one-off as a private car until 1968. Then he sold the two-seater roadster to Dr. Roger Field in Kent. The latter kept the prototype until 1983 and had the engine replaced with a 302 V8 from Ford. Between 1983 and 2006, the third owner, Peter Hague, had the car repainted in its original “Princess Blue”. Since 2006 the car was in Florida with the current owner. There it received a restoration including a retrofit to a correct 289 engine. In 2010, the unique car achieved a class win at the Concours d’Elegance in Amelia Island. Now DK Engineering offers the AC MA-200 for sale.
Images: DK Engineering
