Description
This car, BEX693, is one of 14 cars that were delivered to the USA in 1958, originally being sold to ‘Foreign Cars’ of Detroit Michigan according to a copy of the factory chassis record contained in the history file, whilst the club register has the first owner as ‘C. Bross’. Little is known of the car’s early life in the U. S. – possibly in San Diego in 1972 according to the club – but by the late 80’s the Aceca was in California in the hands of one William Durant. Having lost its original engine at some stage, in 2002 Mr. Durant sold the car and it returned to Europe, going initially to the Netherlands where it was purchased soon after by Lionel Clarke of Lincolnshire. Mr Clarke undertook various works to the chassis and coachwork before advertising the Aceca in Classic & Sportscar’s July 2008 edition as an ongoing restoration.
At this point the car was purchased by Mike Berrisford of Surrey who began a mammoth 7 year project the bring BEX693 back to its former glory. Having completely stripped the car down, the chassis was inspected and found to be in very good order, bar some tidying of the rear outriggers, and was refinished and rust-proofed. The body was taken back to bare metal and repainted in the current British Racing Green whilst all new floor pans and inner wings were fitted. Mechanically, all suspension components were refurbished and reassembled with new Spax shock absorbers in place. At the front, new hubs, discs and calipers were fitted whilst at the rear, the differential was rebuilt by Hardy Engineering before being connected to new drive shafts and hubs with fully rebuilt brakes.
Initially, the relatively high cost of a complete Bristol engine had pointed the rebuild in the direction of a Ford powertrain but when the opportunity of a water-damaged BS1 unit (number 222) presented itself, Mr. Berrisford took the wise decision to return the Aceca to Bristol power. Once completely rebuilt, the engine was mated to a Bristol gearbox which was fitted with a ‘J’ Type overdrive by Ben Yates. A brand new, original style radiator was supplied by Nigel Winchester and fitted with an electric cooling fan. Having previous experience of trimming Aces and Cobras, Mr. Berrisford was comfortable taking on most of the interior work on BEX693 himself, choosing an attractive combination of tan seating with contrasting dark green carpets. When completed, the restoration was documented, with photographs, in the club magazine ‘ACtion’.
In November 2016 BEX693 was purchased by Patrick Debussere from Belgium. Mr. Debussere’s collection also contained an Arnolt-Bristol roadster that had an 85C Bristol engine in it. The BS1 engine in BEX693 had originally been fitted to an Arnolt-Bristol and so he took the decision to remove the engine from the Aceca, put it in the Arnolt, and replace it with the 85C unit. Subsequently, Mr. Debussere sent the Aceca to the UK to have work carried out by specialists IN Racing in Nottingham, with the invoices totalling some £12, 000. Following this work the car was purchased by its current enthusiastic owner to join his growing collection. However, his acquisition of several larger cars means that the Aceca is looking for a new home in order to free up storage space.
