AC Autocarrier
.jpg)
The Autocarrier was the first commercial 3-wheeler produced by AC Cars and it was the car that gave the company their name.
History
[edit]The Autocarrier was designed and manufactured by John Weller in 1908. It began its life as a three-wheeled delivery van, and it was not uncommon for a company to have a least one Autocarrier to be their delivery van.[1]
Technical data
[edit]The Autocarrier was a three-wheeled goods carrier with a single wheel at the rear and driver seated behind the load. A 648 cc single-cylinder air-cooled engine was connected via chain drive to the rear wheel via a two-speed epicyclic gearbox. Some 1,500 were built.[citation needed]
Models
[edit]Later in 1908 AC started to change the layout of the Autocarrier and came up with some different models.
The Sociable
[edit]The AC Sociable was an adapted version of the Autocarrier. This new version was designed with a passenger seat in the front, which is where the car's name came from.
The Sociable was also used by the British Army[1] because of their reliability, and special bodywork was fitted so a machine gun could be carried.[2]
In total, as many as 1,800 examples of The Sociable may have been built.[3]
Later 3-wheeler
[edit]The Petite
[edit]The Petite was not manufactured until 1953, being a post-World War II economy model. The Petite was powered by a 346cc 2-stroke Villiers engine. The Petite was very different from the other 3-wheeled cars made by AC, being of tricycle (rather than reverse tricycle) configuration, and it had a solid roof whereas the other 3-wheeled cars had at most a folding roof. The model was produced until 1958.[1]
See also
[edit]NSU Sulmobil - near-contemporary German 3-wheeler
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 "AC". www.3-wheelers.com. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
- ↑ "AC Sociable Tricars". Classic Motorcycles at Sheldon's Emu. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
- ↑ "Simon Cars - A.C. Sociable". www.simoncars.co.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2026.