Any car guy worth his weight in salt knows that the car that became the vaunted Shelby Cobra began life as a Bristol Ace. This relatively unknown little sports car was not much of a big seller in the USA before it got beefed with 289ci small block Ford engines and ultimately 427ci big blocks. All that aside, this is a cool little car and one that we think is very, very BangShifty. It has the cool triple carb equipped Bristol inline six engine that made about 120hp and gave it the capability to run to 60 in less than 10 seconds. The body is straight, the four speed manual transmission is there, and so is the rest of it.
You’ll notice that the 1959 Bristol Ace (which is years ahead of the first run of Shelby Cobras produced) looks very similar to later models. In our mind it seems like the front grill changed before the Shelby Cobras appeared and it seems like the Cobras got some more work in terms of fenders and quarters for fitting larger tires. Obviously the 427 cars had the very muscular and bulbous fenders to fit the huge by large rubber (for the day) that they shipped with.
This particular car is in need of paint and some interior finishing and then you can drive it. It has not been on the road in a long, long time but it has been kept in a nice place where the car has seemingly not broken down at all.
While the car is certainly not as fast as a Shelby Cobra, we could make an argument that this is actually COOLER than a Cobra because so many people would have no idea what it really is. Make no mistake about it, the Bristol company made a ton of money working with Carroll Shelby. The unfortunate side effect is that they basically sold their identity to make it.
If we bought this car, we’d have to scarf up the NOCBRA license plate and then print off 300 handouts explaining what the car is because very few people would actually get it. Maybe that’s the fun, right?
eBay link: This 1959 Bristol Ace is NOT A Shelby Cobra and that makes it cooler
thank you for some brief history and some nice photos what are down draft carbs doing there???????
“This 1959 Bristol Ace Is NOT A Shelby Cobra and That May Actually Make It Lots Slower”
there, fixed it for you
Sorry but I would dump the 6 and put in a 289 because really wouldn’t you rather have a V8! Will it affect the value of the car? Who cares!
Good idea Jerry. How about fiberglass replicas of these with tons of drivetrain choices!
Why would I waste my money on fiberglass garbage like that when you can replicate the Ace much cheaper than buying a real Shelby.
The down draft carbs are there because of Bristol’s unique valve gear set up. Cross push rods allowed a hemi head with inlet ports feeding straight into them. Some trick six port heads were built which were fitted to works Bristol Le Mans racers and Cooper Bristol single seaters. A few have been fitted to Bristol road cars and with modern fuel injection can generate some serious horse power – at a high price!
By the way I’d keep the Bristol powerplant and either buy this and ship it to the UK for resale at a substantial profit or wait until the price for Bristol Aces matches what it is in the UK. How does £100,000 plus grab you?
It’s an AC Ace with the Bristol Engine. That engine design AC licensed from BMW. so to me the engine is pure scrap that must be recycled. Ohh one of them Aluminum 215’s that GM sold to rover would go in that there Ace. Then it would not be a ‘Cobra’ it would be Awesome.
Buy a 289 early style chassis from Shelby, then put a AC Ace body on it.
All BMW’s & MB’s need to be shredded.