1961 AC Ace - RSX 5001

Following the favourable response to the prototype development 2.6 Ace, AC’s directors decided to introduce the Ruddspeed 2.6 Ace as the third engine option to the Ace range. Chassis were made in advance and numbered in sequence prior to it being decided to build a car with an AC or Bristol engine. However it was decided that there would be a separate chassis numbering sequence for the 2.6 cars beginning with RS 5000.

In order to commence manufacture, the first seven cars used chassis which had already been manufactured and their numbers stamped on in the usual places, such as the bonnet, boot and door hinges. They also wrote the number in pencil behind the dashboard. These were 1189, 1206, 1200, 1201, 1202, 1203 and 1204. All of these were intended to be Ace Bristols. The factory production ledger, aka “the bible”, records the reallocation of these numbers to the new 2.6 numbers of RS(X) 5001, 5001, 5002, 5003, 5004, 5006 and 5007.

RSX 5001 car was the first production 2.6 Ace and left the factory on 27 July 1961. It was featured on the factory sales brochure which was prepared for the 1961 Earls Court Motor Show and by the process of elimination it is virtually certain that it is the left hand drive car with the flat screen. Its engine number was S191773E and it had the Mays head but the carburettor type is unknown. The colour was Svecia Red and the interior black.

Unusually the name of the first customer was not recorded. All of that is shown is that it was sent to the distributors, Rudds of Worthing. A clerical error occurred at that time when instead of being recorded as RSX, the X denoting LHD, was transposed and incorrectly shown as “RXS”. This was to have far reaching consequences as explained later here.

Unlike all the other 36 cars, absolutely nothing is known of this car’s history for the following 20 years. For some unknown reason it was thought to have gone to France but there is no evidence of this.

The Ace 2.6 Register recorded this car as totally missing in that nothing whatsoever is known of it since it left the factory, that is to say until 2019. That year, the Ace Bristol Registrar, Tim Isles, received an email from a Bill Rempner in Los Angeles. He said he was the administration manager for a well known Californian who was in poor health and wished to get rid of some possessions. Rempner knew the car was an AC but had no idea which model. He said it was a lapsed project to turn it into some kind of “Cobra-ised” special which had stated out in the 1970s. He added it had a Ford V8 engine and top loader gearbox. 

Isles asked him if he could find any numbers on the car. Rempner replied that all could find was 1189 stamped on the bonnet, boot hinges and written behind the dashboard. Bingo! The last missing 2.6 Ace had been found!

Rempner sent photos from which it was obvious the car had been modified and butchered to within an inch of its life. The rear suspension had been cut off and replaced with that of a Jaguar E Type as had the front suspension. The body work, front and rear, had been reshaped but the car still had its original doors, bonnet, boot, dashboard with instruments, the wiring loom and the seats.

It was bought in 2020 by Alastair Caldwell, one time Chief Mechanic and then Formula One Team Manager of McLaren and later Brabham. Under his tenure three World Drivers’ championships were secured; Emmerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt and Nelson Piquet. He then left motor racing and founded Space Station which grew into a large self storage business. In America, the car had been given the registration number of its vehicle identity, RXS 5001. With that identity if was reimported to the U.K. in 2021 and sent to AC Heritage/Brooklands Cars Limited for restoration.

This was a major project with so much of the original car missing. A rear chassis end with Salisbury differential was sourced from France, a new body made using the original 2.6 body buck and a 2.6 engine with a Raymond Mays head and triple Weber carburettors which had recently been rebuild by the late expert Ford engine rebuilder, Greg Margetts. A Ford all synchronous gear box and overdrive were also located. An original 2.6 curved screen was fitted.

After three years the project was finished and the resurrected car completed in 2024 in its original body and interior colours.

In order to have it registered with the DVLA  and to have a V5 registration document, it needed to show its Californian registration document and to be inspected by them. To keep things simple and steer clear of any bureaucratic problems, it was decided to leave its identity a RXS 5001 and not point out the original error. This has even been repeated on the chassis plate. However it is certain that the lost 1961 original was RSX 5001. The car now has a new U.K.registration number of 403 XVU.

The quest continues to discover its history between 1961 and when it was purchased by Bill Rempner’s employer in the late 1970s.

We would love to hear from anyone has more information on the car or would like to add to the history please feel free to contact us here at Ruddspeed.
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