This long established sports car maker is best known for their muscle car powered Cobra models which suggested a promising future. Founded in 1903 as Auto Carriers Ltd, pre war production consisted of sports and family cars. The 1953 AC Ace was a reasonable success with strong exports and a favourable reputation, particularly with the evolved Cobra models use of the small block Ford V8. Other low volume models followed but the long delayed 1973 3000ME (finally making it into production in 1980) signed the death knell of the company. Typically for a British car company several resurrections have occurred since the last 3000ME model in 1984 with various one offs and short run sport cars being available.