The AC badge doesn't stand for anything glamorous. It abbreviates the Autocarrier, a three-wheeled delivery cart for shopkeepers that paid for everything that followed, including the Cobra.
- Country
-
United Kingdom - Active
- Since 1901
- Founded by
- John Weller and Charles Weller (Weller Bros), with investor John Portwine
- Website
- Official website ↗
A butcher, two brothers and a three-wheeled delivery cart
The AC in AC Cars doesn’t stand for anything glamorous. It comes from the Autocarrier, a three-wheeled delivery vehicle built for shopkeepers. That humble cart paid for everything that followed, including the Cobra.
According to AC’s own history, it all began in 1901, when the brothers John and Charles Weller set up Weller Bros in West Norwood, London, as engineers, repairers and makers of motor cars and motorcycles. John Weller was the inventor of the two. In 1902 a local butcher called John Portwine bought into the firm, and in 1903 Weller showed a 20 hp touring car. Portwine had other ideas. He persuaded Weller to design something a tradesman could afford, and the Autocarrier was born. The company was renamed Autocar and Accessories Ltd in 1904.
The two letters arrived in November 1907, when Autocarriers Ltd was formed with Portwine and the Wellers as directors. A passenger version of the three-wheeler, the Sociable, stayed in production until 1915. In 1911 the firm outgrew West Norwood and moved to Ferry Works in Thames Ditton, Surrey, which remained its home for more than 70 years.
Four-wheelers came in 1913 with the 10 hp AC Light Car. After the First World War John Weller designed the Light Six engine, launched in 1920, and it stayed in production until 1963. The racing driver Selwyn Edge bought shares in 1921 and became governing director, AC Cars Ltd was formed in 1922, and that same year an AC became the first 1500cc car to cover 100 miles in an hour at Brooklands. The company went into liquidation in 1930 and was picked up by the brothers William and Charles Hurlock. William built himself a car from spare parts, liked it, and car production quietly resumed.
Two letters in a blue ring
The AC emblem is a roundel: a plain circular ring with the letters A and C inside it. The letters are drawn in a flowing Art Nouveau style, as AC itself points out. The A leans back with a long, curling crossbar, and its right leg slides straight into the C, so the two letters read as one connected shape. In the artwork on the official website the whole badge, ring and letters, is rendered in a single dark blue.
There is no hidden symbolism to decode. The letters simply abbreviate Autocarrier, the delivery vehicle that gave the company its early income, and the company says the emblem has changed only in minor ways since. The abbreviation itself was first used in 1907, and the AC Owners’ Club’s archivist John Spencer dates the A-C logo to that same year. Other accounts place the roundel at the 1911 move to Thames Ditton, so treat the exact birthday as uncertain.
Why blue?
AC has never published an explanation for the colour. The current official logo file is a single shade of dark blue on a transparent background, and that is as far as the record goes. The brand attaches no meaning to it, so we won’t invent one.
From the Ace to the Cobra and back again
For its first half century AC was a small maker of light cars, tourers and saloons, kept alive during and after the Second World War by military work and sidelines such as golf trolleys. Then came the Ace, and with it the car that made the badge famous worldwide.
Landmark ACs, from Thames Ditton to Donington
- 1904: Autocarrier. The three-wheeled delivery vehicle that gave the company its name and its initials.
- 1953: Ace. Shown at the 1953 London Motor Show on a tubular ladder chassis, with an aluminium body. Owners could race it at the weekend and drive it to work on Monday. Production ended in 1963.
- 1957: Ace Bristol. With a Bristol engine, the Ace finished 10th at Le Mans in 1957 and won the 2-litre GT class in 1959, seventh overall behind six 3-litre cars.
- 1962: Cobra. Carroll Shelby persuaded AC to fit a lightweight Ford V8 into the Ace. AC built every original Cobra chassis at Thames Ditton, and the car grew from the 260 through the 289 to the 427.
- 1965: Daytona Coupe. Shelby’s coupes, built on AC chassis, beat Ferrari to the GT class of the World Sportscar Championship.
- 1979: 3000ME. A mid-engined sports car first shown at the 1973 London Motor Show, built from 1979 to 1985.
- 2023: Cobra GT Roadster. A new Cobra on an aluminium spaceframe chassis, launched after the company moved its headquarters to Donington Park.
The Cobra story belongs to AC and Shelby in equal measure, with the V8 supplied by Ford. The modern Cobra GT models keep the Ford V8 connection. On home soil AC’s small-volume rivals over the years have included Lotus, TVR and Morgan.
AC questions, answered
What does AC stand for?
Autocarrier, the three-wheeled delivery vehicle the company built from 1904. The abbreviation AC was first used in November 1907, when Autocarriers Ltd was formed.
What does the AC logo look like?
A circular ring with the letters A and C inside, drawn in a flowing Art Nouveau style and joined together. The current official artwork is dark blue.
Who founded AC Cars?
The brothers John and Charles Weller, who set up Weller Bros in West Norwood, London, in 1901. The butcher John Portwine joined as an investor in 1902 and pushed for the Autocarrier.
Did AC build the Cobra?
Yes. Carroll Shelby’s Cobra was based on the AC Ace, and AC built all the original Cobra chassis at its Thames Ditton factory in the 1960s.
Where is AC Cars based today?
At Donington Park in Castle Donington, England, where the company moved its headquarters in 2023. It describes itself as Britain’s oldest active vehicle manufacturer.
The Autocarrier file: AC facts
- Founded
- 1901
- Founder
- John Weller and Charles Weller (Weller Bros), with investor John Portwine
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Headquarters
- Castle Donington, United Kingdom
- Current emblem
- A circular ring with joined Art Nouveau letters A and C inside, rendered in dark blue
- Known for
- The Ace and the original Cobra chassis built at Thames Ditton
- Website
- Official website ↗
