Spotted at North Weald

[Migge]

Or you have to polish the car that the dirt and insects have no chance to stick on

[peterc]

Personally I think he has tried a bit too hard with the patina. A bit over done.
Has anyone checked the DVLA web site, you would be surprised at what AC this is.
I would hope anyone wanting to buy it in the future would check and ask.
Caveat emptor.
Peter C

[simonjrwinter]

Apparently when rescued, the body was squashed flat in places so I think he’s done pretty well to straighten as much as he has.

[peterc]

Simon I think that statement just emphasises how the car has somewhat changed shape.
I’ll say no more.
Look up the reg number in the DVLA website.
Peter C

[Colin Newbold]

Personally, I love it! Many years ago I had the opportunity to buy a 289 chassis but the price was too strong. It was supposedly an exact copy, zinc coated. Could that have been the basis of this car?

[simonjrwinter]

Simon I think that statement just emphasises how the car has somewhat changed shape.
I’ll say no more.
Look up the reg number in the DVLA website.
Peter C

No worse than this “1967 delivered” car……

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/12093027

[SirrahBRA]

Simon I think that statement just emphasises how the car has somewhat changed shape.
I’ll say no more.
Look up the reg number in the DVLA website.
Peter C

No worse than this “1967 delivered” car……

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/12093027

[peterc]

Interesting. Not seen an electric motor that shape before and quoted as 4.7 L.
It’s old enough to get into a low emission zone OK without pretending to be electric.
I thought the original AC invalid cars were driven by a motorbike engine not electric?
Peter C

[clive]

Copied from an article in The Guardian...

Originally, there were many different invalid carriages, but the government wanted a standard design. AC of Cobra fame did the job, coming up with the Model 70, and It was designed to use Fiat running gear, but Fiat were reluctant to provide powerplants. So the engine from the Austrian-built Fiat 500 was used, a Steyr-Puch air-cooled flat twin of 493cc and 20bhp.

Around 18,000 were built between 1972 and 1977, with AC and Invacar Ltd building half of that total each. Invacar Ltd was run by the same people who built the Greeves motorcycles, and this company built the very first Invacar in 1948. Invacar was based in Thundersley, which is perhaps why these blue (they were all ice blue) three-wheelers are often known as Thundersley Invacars.

After pressure from Graham Hill and others, the scheme was ended in 1977 on safety grounds. It’s easy to see why. There’s very little crash protection, they’re quite unstable and wheelchair users did not need to take a proper driving test in order to drive them. It was decided that people who already had an Invacar could keep it, but the scheme finally came to a complete end in 2003 and within the space of a week or so, all remaining Invacars (several hundred) were collected from their ‘owners.’ The cars were leased to the end user.

[peterc]

Thanks Clive, it was upmarket with two cylinders not just one!
I do remember that they shouldn’t be driven enthusiastically as they were a bit wobbly on corners.
Peter C