Of the 463 Ace Bristol’s produced at the Thames Ditton Works, only 100 came in right hand drive configuration. The Motorcar offered is BE 294, and is one of sixteen right hand drive Ace Bristols that were exported. BE294 left the Thames Ditton works on the 18th of April 1957 and had been shipped to Far East Motors, Hong Kong.

The first custodian of this motorcar Ron Hardwick, a Cathay Pacific pilot, said he fell into racing almost by accident. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hardwick, the son of a British Army captain, said he had raced motorcycles around the then undeveloped new territories. After buying a Triumph TR2 to drive around Europe on holiday, the service manager for Far East Motors Eddie Carvalho (winner of the initial 1954 Grand Prix) entered his car in the race without telling him.

'Eddie was a crazy guy and it was just like him to do that and at the time they were scraping to get as many people down to Macau as possible. I had been racing in a few hill climbs with the Hong Kong Motor Sport Club and done alright so I thought why not’. After finishing out of the running in the '55 race with a blown engine and missing the 1956 GP due to work commitments. Hardwick returned to the Guia Circuit in 1957 , in his recently acquired AC Ace Bristol (BE294), he achieved his best lap time of 3m and 45.7s, the third fastest lap on the grid, 11 seconds behind the leading Mercedes 300SL of Pateman. He completed the 77 laps of Guia in a swift 4 hours 58 minutes and 15 seconds, under four minutes behind the winning Mercedes 300SL. Hardwick also achieved a 1st in the ACP trophy the day before the GP.

Hardwick returned the following year for the fifth Macau grand prix, battling it out for second place with the XK140 of Tom Reynolds. Hardwick managed to lap Barnes in the Porsche 1600 on the 48th lap, Barnes would go on to place 3rd, Hardwick comfortably claimed 2nd and Chan Lye-Choon placed 1st.

The 1958 Grand Prix weekend included multiple short races of which Hardwick showed a great performance, placing 1st in the A.C.P Trophy race and 3rd in the production car race. Hardwick would eventually go on to win the Macau Grand Prix in 1959 in a Jaguar XKSS, he returned to the GP in 1960 achieving a 4th place finish and a 2nd in the ACP Trophy race in the AC Ace Bristol.

Hardwick sold the car after this race to Mr Rene Sales who returned the following year for the ACP trophy race achieving a 4th place finish and 5th in the Grand Prix beating Hardwick in a Austin Healey. Sales returned for one last race the 1962 Macau Grand Prix. ‘Rene Sales well down the field in old AC bristol - had blown up in spectacular fashion, with a terrific explosion the engine had emptied its contents onto the side of the track. Sales guided the car to the side of the road, carefully picked up all the bits pieces from the track, deposited them nonchalantly over the high cliff edge and promptly disappeared for a brandy with one of his relatives - who just by chance lived next to that part of the track’. It then passed into Mr M. Simpson’s ownership. He was a military man overseas and owned the car for 8 years prior to his colleague Isles, who imported to the UK in 1970’s and it was his first of many Ace’s and he was also the long standing Ace Bristol registrar.

The late Anthony Morpeth purchased the car in 1972 and remained the owner for 47 years until we purchased the car. Mr Morpeth campaigned the car lightly throughout his ownership in various hillclimbs and sprints, he also had the car put into the Quentin Wilsons book ‘The Ultimate Classic Car’ Book.

We have carried out a full body off AC Heritage restoration, which can be finished to your desired engine specification.

To find out more about this significant motorcar please contact our sales team for further details.
Viewing by prior appointment. 

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