AC’s American adventure

Newswheel staff :: 17 November 2005 :: Filed under AC, Europe & UK, US

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Crusty British outfit to build US facility

For reasons unknown to Newswheel, the Seattle Post has broken a story about AC Cars building a factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut in the grand old US of A. Apparently, AC is impressed with the success of the BMW-ised Mini in the US and feels the time is ripe for more niche Brit-cars.

AC expects to invest just $4.5 million in creating a 40,000 square-foot facility. No details have been released regarding the models AC plans to make. But chairman Alan Lubinsky told the Post that the cars will sell in the $90,000 to $150,000 bracket and the company will create around 140 jobs in Bridgeport. There’s no word on whether this new US produce will make it back to the motherland. While we’re not sure how much residual value is left in the rather threadbare AC brand, we are confident of one thing. The new cars had better be a large improvement on the chintzy lash-up that was the last AC Ace:

Spot the parts-bin refugees: yup, that’s a pair of Mazda 323 headlights and indicator clusters rescued from a 964-vintage Porsche 911.

Or these interesting, but ultimately rather irrelevant, efforts of recent-ish decades:

After 12 straight hours, Charles had lost feeling both buttocks.

Linkage:
Seattle Post