The Silhan AC Ace

Fairly glowing in the winter afternoon

I wanted to post a couple of the photos that Richard Cunningham shot of Bill Silhan's lovely 1960 AC Ace. Bill dropped his gorgeous car off at Mike Darby's Darby Classic Restoration for some fine tuning ahead of the spring show season. Bill, Mike and Richard are all members of the South Alabama British Car Club and the Panhandle British Car Association.

The AC Ace is probably best known as the basis for Carroll Shelby's Cobra conversions in the early sixties.

Mike Darby (l) and Bill Silhan

Produced from 1951 through 1962, the Ace was originally powered by AC's own 2 liter 6 cylinder engine producing 100bhp. From 1956, customers could order their Ace with a 2 liter Bristol six cylinder engine pumping out 120bhp. 

Designed by famed automotive engineer John Tojeiro, the Ace was a tube-framed, aluminum bodied open sports car resembling an early Ferrari Barchetta. Later, a closed, 'fastback' version was produced under the Aceca model name.

 
Bill, we hope to see a lot of this beautiful car on the show circuit this year.