1962 AC Ace - RS 5012

RS 5012 was written off in an accident in 1971. The front end was grafted on to a crashed AC engined car which was in turn destroyed in a racing crash and that was the end of it. The front part of the Triumph engined Ace, owned by Tony Luxton, onto which the rear end was grafted was AE 1138. This hybrid car was again crashed irreparably. Some remains and the engine were sold to Brian Angliss of Autokraft for £150. The damaged remains of the rear end was sold to a Frenchman who put it into storage with a friend, who now has dementia and cannot recall where it was stored.

A non AC manufactured Cobra chassis was acquired by the then owner and built up as a Cobra copy using the identity of AE 1138 and the repaired Cobra-ised body of the front of RS 5012 and rear of AE 1138. This was subsequently sold and still exists. The rest of the chassis was disposed of, except for a couple of tubes which were used as part of a fence. In 2008 these were sold/passed on to a Richard Wright (one time owner of RS 5003) and who wished to recreate RS 5012.

As RS 5012 was written off in the 1971, and with the chassis being replaced, the engine and other parts sold off, very little remains of the original vehicle. So we would class this as a replica vehicle and not an genuine AC Ace Ruddspeed.

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 AC Heritage