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I`ve always loved the amazing looking AC 2 Litre Saloon and thats why I found your excellent site . I was once thrilled by the prospect of a trip from London to Nottingham in a rather delapidated example but unfortunately we conked out a few miles up the road . This was way back in 1973 . Sorry I`m a bit off topic .

A real labour of love, excellent research and presentation.

Very good! Aside from watching your channel I was completely unaware of these cars history. You have educated me. Cheers from Iowa

Excellent production and research

I really enjoyed this series Ian. They made some beautiful cars. One of the star cars in 'Downton Abbey' was an AC Six from the '20s. Best wishes, Dean.

Thanks

I don't think I have ever seen or even heard of that 3000 ME before. Fascinating car! By the way that comment from WilcoxJoey is a scam so best delete it.

the color is awesome very british . can i find that color in the U.S. ?

flight cancelled to Retromobile so took the time to finally watch this and now have a greater understanding of AC. thank you. I did not know that the prewar cars used underslung standard chassis nor the Cobra 427 program overtaking the MT200 proposal or really how much Alan Turner is involved. Those Cobras can trace their history back to a Ferrari 166 copy by John Tojeiro.

Thanks for making this.

Interesting

I don't know how much I retained, but I enjoyed it. Thanks for the history lesson. Cheers from the shed

Riley 9 front leaf springs are also slightly asymmetric. Quite hard to notice by eight but does terrible things to handling of you get them backwards.

What a thoroughly enjoyable and informative video Ian. I would be happy to hear more about the business side too so don't hold back! Looking forward to part 2. Best wishes, Dean.

I wouldn't want to be the passenger in that Tri Car😮

Seem to remember they had site near the railway crossing ( Summer Road ) Thames Ditton/Hampton Court area ? Used to drive over that crossing going from flat in Surbiton to work near Byfleet ?

That church looks nice, i make church videos on my channel

Interesting

390 quid for that second red one? Sold :) And my goodness, those Aero 8s are not pretty cars (just my opinion obviously).

Merry Christmas Ian.

Nice event.. Thanks for taking us along. I was completely ignorant of ACs until I stumble onto your channel... I'm glad I did. Merry Christmas from the Shed

I couldn't agree more Ian. As soon as you look at any video's here on TH-cam about British cars you get people claiming they are all rubbish, as well as the old chestnut 'Lucas, Prince of Darkness'. Yet I've owned almost exclusively British cars and they are far from rubbish and neither is Lucas. In fact they are no less reliable or well designed that any other countries marques and quite often they are far supperior. German cars for instance are claimed to be the best, yet they are not as well designed or reliable as claimed. Many have far more problems than any British car, yet somehow they get away with it.

Advancements in lubricating oils will also have made a difference to the durability of cars now I expect.

Totally agree. I have been working on my British cars since 1966 and have had no reliability issues with Minis, Triumph, MG , Lotus, Jaguar or Land Rover, until the introduction of CPU's and electronics. Now in retirement, I am still driving a 1959 MGA, 1969 Lotus , 1996 Defender and a 1979 MG Midget. The one that gives me most issues is the 2005 Jaguar XKR and all are small niggling issues, electrical fault codes.

Well said. Just buying a 20 year old 'modern' car is a often a lesson in replacing so many components that Trigger's Broom comes swiftly to mind...

There is no such thing as a reliable British engine will do over 1000000 miles without a rebuild why but there have been many Toyota engines that have done that without a rebuild and l owned a couple of Hillmans in the 1970s and l was happy to get rid of my Hillman Gazzell in 1980 because it blew head gaskets for no obvious reasons and in tge 2000 bought a Ford Fiesta and that was the worst brand new car we ever brought and we were both glad to see it leave on the back of a tow truck now 5 years ago l bought a 1997 Toyota Hilux as l was a courier retired now and 5 years later l still have that same Toyota Hilux and the Hilux is still running well and 5 years ago l paid aud $1500 for the Hilux but as with most older Toyotas in Australia they appreciate now to buy a 1997 Toyota Hilux l would pay aud $5000 to $6000 and l have looked at you tube for reliable British engines and they don't exist and don't forget the Rover 75 and MGF bith blew head gaskets were my Hilux with 440000 kilometres on it still has its original head gasket and also the 22R engine is considered to be one of tge most reliable engines ever made so over engineered this were British engines fall down the are not engineered very well why did so many British vehicle manufacturers fail because there cars were so unreliable and its happening today but one thing Lotus did they started using Toyota engines and showed how smart Lotus and as l say how do you make a British car reliable put a Toyota engine in it and not forgetting that many Hillman lmps with that absolutely awful engine that they why are so many swapping there engines for BMW K100 and Honda Gold Wing engines because they are much much more reliable than the original engine and engine swapping seems common in the UK because tgere is a wide range of reliable engines available a not from Britain but l did see on you tube one reliable British well realy is a British engine the 3.5 litre Buick V8 for the Rovers only one out of all the awful dreadful unreliable engines that thankfully no longer available in any vehicles so don't talk about reliable British engines because they don't exist

Some gorgeous and rare cars in your photos! I agree, but also disagree with your sentiments. Yes, cars need regular maintenance and there are some pretty robust and reliable British cars out there - I have a photo of my grandfathers P4 cyclops crossing the Nullarbor when it was little more than a dirt track. That same car also survived a cyclone. Yet I have worked on British cars like my own P6b and MG’s and had brand new Lucas parts fail straight out of the box. My grandfather’s 2500PI never ran right from new either. So yes, they do have their foibles and quirks and in some instances they are more fragile than American cars, but that’s what makes them unique.

I ran a 1970 Hillman Hunter for over 10 years in the 70s and 80s - super reliable!

I ran a TE21 drop head for 15 years in California. The sum total of my electrical problems is this: the modern electronic ignition I fitted at the beginning failed right after its one year warranty expired (I reinstalled the old points) and, on frosty mornings, the left turn signal repeater on the instrument panel did not light up, although the turn signal itself did. It kicked in once the weather warmed up a bit.

A frequent source of trouble with English car electrics was the positive ground battery. Here in north America, no car had positive ground electrics after 1955 and most people never thought, they just put the battery in negative ground and of course, the electrics did not work right. English engines typically lasted 20,000 to 30,000 miles when an American engine would last 80,000 to 100,000.

Classics are coddled. My 1966 Norton 650SS is fettled before each run. I remember an uncle greasing and oiling his sit up and beg Ford each Saturday morning.

I rambert when you could go into an automotive electricians shop and buy reels of tracer cable in any colour combination before copper became a semi precious metal

Hi Ian, my late father was in complete agreement with your sentiments re "little electronic black blobs" hindering owner servicing which I've potted into a fairly succinct remark: Once upon a time you could take a Morris Minor apart with a 1/2" spanner and a few choice expletives. Now it costs $1/2 million USD to equip a VW service centre.

The biggest electric problems are caused by good old fashioned bodges. My current Jag had some cables altered and run below the rad in a bicycle inner tube, with wires twisted together to extend them! Still worked for a short while though before I put it back to standard. All of the original Lucas bits from 1960 work fine, although they were rebuilt 40 or so years ago.

I agree with you Ian. I do find that everyone is an expert on British cars and Lucas electrics even though most have never owned a British car or have no practical knowledge of them.

As I thought Ian , most of your subscribers fully concur with your comments .As a veteran of many restorations of British vehicles over the years, the latest a 1961 Austin 7 Mini , entombed in a damp garage since 1974.Every date marked Lucas item fitted was easily serviced to perfect working order and unecessary to even replace any bulbs or ignition points !.Working on the odd modern car, I'm apalled at the cheap build construction of most components , even on prestigeous marques , which makes one appreciate older cars even more that were built in a time when regular maintenance attention was required, but offered unfailing reliability .

I wouldn't call that a rant. All perfectly reasonable. Despite playing with cars as an amateur I am by profession a software person and modern cars, being full of software, terrify me! Knowing software and how well that works I don't trust them. Add to that how modern cars are basically no longer machines but more appliances complete with built in obsolescence I really don't like them. You already have cars now that have all the hardware but certain features can only be used if you pay someone to 'enable' them in software for you. Don't even get me started on supposedly autonomous cars. From a software point of view making them reliable, in all conditions, is a massive ask that I don't think we will get to. As we say in software development the last 10% takes 90% of the time. Lucas electrics are actually fine. Really well made and perfectly good if looked after. Same with SU carbs, if rebuilt and not worn they work fine if you know how to set them up.

Happy and healthy Christmas to you.

Wish you well in the venture. Very interesting content.

Totally agree you comments. Most of the time manufacturers design a part to be used a certain way for a reason. Am not a classic car driver but a great believer in look after your car, drive sensibly, help it look out for the other morons, and your car will do its best to look after you.

I could not agree more with your sentiments. If all the narrative about British cars and Lucas electrics reliability is to be believed, it's a wonder how anybody back in the day ever got from A to B without breaking down. My father had several British cars from the 50s through to the 2000s and I don't remember them ever letting him down. I can remember driving up and down the motorways in the late 70s, and I don't recall a litany of stranded British cars on the hard shoulder either. In these days of social media where everybody and anybody can vent their bile on the internet. These 'myths' take on a life of their own, and the cars become the butt of jokes for every would be cynic and wag out there. Many of whom weren't even alive, maybe thats true of their parents also when these car were providing reliable daily transport for their owners. One other pet peeve of mine is how British cars always leak or leaked oil. I see an awful lot of black stains and outright oil puddles in parking lots everywhere. You will never convince me they're all left by British cars!

Nice video👍

I totally agree with you Ian, particularly concerning Lucas electrics. I think that old chestnut about Joe Lucas being “The Prince Of Darkness” had its genesis in America, probably for the exact same reasons you gave about regular, thorough, servicing not being given to what were most likely older English sports cars such as the MGs, Triumphs, Austin Healeys and the like. I’ve got a 1980 Citroen CX and the utter rubbish spouted about French cars makes me want to tear my hair out at times. This is remarkably similar to the opinions spouted about British cars, only this time it seems to come mainly from here in the U.K. The most galling criticism is the one about the difficulty of repairing and maintaining the hydraulic system, which in its time must have been an absolute moneyspinner for the garages which undertook its repair. I think nearly every owner who entrusted their car to a garage to have work done on the hydraulics had already been brainwashed into expecting a bill of £500 and up, when in fact, it’s relatively easy to repair once the car’s up on a hoist. I’m following your work on the AC with great interest, I remarked right at the beginning of your series about how I’d always thought of the AC 2 litre as a rather dowdy beast, your series has completely won me over to the opposite opinion and I now think of it as a worthy companion of the Alvis, Riley, Lea Francis, and similar sporting saloons. I look forward to when you can resume your restoration in the new year.

Here in the USA people do give Lucas a hard time. The reality of it is that electrical trouble is frustrating no matter who made them.. Also, weather and the mice have had decades to make things worse. All I have to do is look in a mirror to know that anything over 60 years old is going to have problems. Ha Ha! Cheers

I started with 1961 Ford pop. Only problem was a blown head gasket, then bought a new 1965 Austin 1100 , then a 1968 Ford 1600 E, then a new Ford GT Capri, then a new 2 litre Ford GXL Mk 3 Cortina, plus 2 V8 Rover P6s, Triumph 2000, Triumph Toledo, Triumph GT 6 mk 3. Etc. These cars were reliable with little to no trouble considering what they cost new. Compare them with today's expensive to purchase and quite often unreliable.

I agree with every word Ian. You hear a lot of rot about British cars. I ran a succession of Triumph 2000/2500 saloons and an estate in the late 90s/early 2000s as daily drivers. I was posted in the RAF in northern Scotland and regularly drove the cars to East Anglia and Yorkshire. I drove the cars as they were meant to be driven and held 'modern' traffic speeds for long periods. I changed a water pump, had a little bit of MOT welding done, properly fixed a bodged overdrive wiring loom and kept them serviced as the book demanded. Apart from the occasional resetting of the points, I had no trouble between maintenance. A stitch in time.

I've heard ad a lot of British cars in my past.. I had a couple of French ones and they both caught fire.. My 1986 Bentley doesn't get the expensive servicing it should have really but most of its problems have been perished rubber, pipes and bushes.. I never really knew much about ACs apart from the Cobra..

Happy Christmas and good luck with the business.

Thanks for new video Ian, The new engine parks look good what are you still waiting for? I hope you have a happy Christmas and New Year

Wishing you a happy Christmas from here. Your hand brushed paint work still blows me away! Cheers from the Shed