AC 3000ME

About the AC 3000ME

The AC 3000ME was one of those cars that looked like a potential winner when it was first announced in its 3 litre form. It boasted a transverse mid-engiine, mounted behind the cockpit, with an attractive sports car shape, It has a steel chassis with front and rear sub frames.

An early prototype of what became this car was called the Diablo and developed by Bohanna and Stables in 1972, and used an Austin Maxi 1500 cc engine. When AC adopted the car for development they used the Ford Essex 3 litre engine married to an AC 5-speed gearbox. It was first announced in this guise at the Earls Court motor show in 1973. Unfortunately, the car suffered a very lengthy development and was not production ready until its further announcement at the NEC based motor show in 1978. The company went through changes in ownership during its full production range. .Production was moved from Thames Ditton to Hillingdon in Scotland where the final 30 cars were made.