1926 AC Royal Tourer

Offered by Bonhams | Hendon, U.K. | April 29, 2013

I hope you would agree that the car above looks pretty good – considering it was built in 1926 and has not been restored! That’s right, this is an all-original car. I suppose it’s possible that it has not been repainted, but it certainly looks so. The seller describes the body and interior as having a nice “patina” – which is seller code for “imperfections.”

But on an almost-90-year-old car, imperfections are character. Auto Carriers Ltd. began work on a new six-cylinder engine immediately following the First World War, but it wasn’t quite ready for production and AC still had to pay the bills. Enter the entry-level four-cylinder Royal you see here. It uses a 1.5-liter straight-four rated at 12 horsepower.

This car has had six owners from new and has been in the same family since 1954. The four-cylinder AC went out of production in 1928 once the six-cylinder really took off. This car is expected to bring between $20,000-$26,000. Click here for more and here for the rest of this sale.

Update: Sold $26,900.