AC Autocarrier

The AC Autocarrier, also written Auto-Carrier, was the first commercial three-wheeler built by AC Cars and the vehicle that gave the company its name. It was a goods carrier with a single wheel at the rear and the driver seated behind the load, powered by a 648 cc single-cylinder air-cooled engine that drove the rear wheel by chain through a two-speed epicyclic gearbox. About 1,500 were built. The sources disagree on its date: one article says John Weller designed and built it in 1908, while the history of AC Cars says production of the Auto-Carrier started in 1904. It began as a delivery van, and the Sociable, a version with a passenger seat in front, was adapted from it; as many as 1,800 Sociables may have been built, and the British Army used them with special bodywork that could carry a machine gun.