CarBrandLogos archive · Mack · 1916

MackMack AC

A blunt-nosed wartime workhorse that gave its manufacturer a bulldog for a badge.

Photo: War Department. Army War College. Historical Section. World War I Branch. ca. 19 · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Mack history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Mack AC, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Edward Hewitt designed the AC around a cooling arrangement that shaped everything else about it. The radiator sits behind the engine rather than in front of it, fed by air drawn through louvres in the sides of the bonnet, which meant the front of the truck could be cut off short and square. The result was a stubby, snub-nosed profile unlike anything else on the road, and a radiator far better protected from stone damage and freezing.

1918 Mack AC 5½ ton truck · John Welsh · CC BY-SA 2.0

Design and engineering

Underneath it was deliberately unsophisticated: a four-cylinder petrol engine of 74 horsepower, a three-speed selective gearbox with a clutch brake, and final drive by chains to the rear wheels at a time when many manufacturers were moving to shafts. Chains were heavier and noisier and needed constant attention, but they tolerated abuse and could be repaired at the roadside, which mattered more than refinement for a truck rated at three and a half to seven and a half tons.

In production

Thousands went to Britain and France during the First World War, hauling supplies over ground that destroyed lighter vehicles. British soldiers are said to have remarked that the trucks had the tenacity of bulldogs, and the nickname stuck hard enough that Mack adopted the bulldog as its emblem in 1922 and put one on the bonnet as a hood ornament a decade later. It is still there.

Legacy

The AC stayed in production until 1938, an unusually long life, working on road building, construction and heavy haulage long after chain drive had gone out of fashion elsewhere. Its successor was the BC, but its real legacy is a company identity built entirely on a nickname earned in a war.

At a glance