Where: Peyriac de mer, France
Who: AC Owners Club of France
When: June 19, 2014
As I already posted I missed LeMans due to mechanical problems with my flight getting to Paris, so my new intent was to at least get some pictures of cars that we normally don’t see in the US or maybe just some nice sports cars in the Paris environment. I was slightly disappointed with Paris, car wise anyways. We stayed in the Opera district and walked to the River Seine and all the attractions every day, but saw very few cars to take a picture of. I saw one Lotus Elise a couple of times, but I never had my camera to the ready. We saw lots of cars we don’t see in the US, but mostly just economy cars that have no sporting value. There were the new scooters with two front wheels that were pretty cool and seemed to be the preferred scooter of the upper level business men in Armani suits, but the only car worth a picture was the original Mini’s and there were a number of them.
Eventually we did see a Ferrari and a Lamborghini rental cars parked as we were leaving the Tuileries Gardens that were for rent, 89€ for a 20 minutes’ drive. They had some crazy advertising on the side of them so I was almost embarrassed to take the picture, and didn’t, but did find them on someone else’s site here. Other than to say you drove them, I’m not sure it would be that great of a drive in that particular area.
The second half of the trip was much better car wise. We headed to the south of France to stay in a little town called Peyriac de mer. From there we traveled to the Mediterranean Sea, a small city called Narbonne, and to Carcassonne where one of the largest castles in Europe is located.
As we are entering town we are met with the AC Owners Club of France just finishing their lunch with all of their cars parked in a circle immediately outside of the door to our residence. What a nice surprise. We dropped our bags and starting taking pictures. Besides ACs there was one Jaguar and one “real” Shelby Cobra. There was a language barrier, so no stories, but lots of great pictures and videos.
AC History:
AC Cars are Britain’s oldest car manufactures having been produced since 1901. In 1953 the AC Ace was launched and found a following among sports motorists. It was very successful in British Club racing and the Shelby AC Cobra eventually evolved from the AC Ace. In 1961 AC was approached by Carroll Shelby to use a small block Ford V8 engine in the Ace chassis, producing the AC Cobra. Shelby needed a car that could compete with the Chevrolet Corvette in US sports car racing. The resulting Cobra was a very powerful roadster.
1953-1963 AC Ace
Manufacturer: AC Cars
Production: 1953–1963
Body and chassis: 2-door roadster
Engine
2.0 L I6 (AC)
2.0 L I6 (Bristol)
2.6 L I6 (Ford)
Transmission
4-speed manual (With overdrive available)
Dimensions
Wheelbase: 90 in (2,286 mm)
Length: 152 in (3,861 mm)
Width: 59.5 in (1,511 mm)
Height: 49 in (1,245 mm)
Curb weight: 1920 lb (871 kg)
Links around the web:
http://www.acheritage.co.uk/
http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/features/octane_features/276613/driven_ac_acebristol.html
http://www.acownersclub.co.uk/
Enjoy.
