Spotting the factory as we approached was easy due to a number of Cobra's parked opposite and the sound of the side pipes from one of the AK demonstrators!
Carla was on hand greeting arrivals and co-ordinating test rides for the day and I was pleasantly surprised on arrival to be directed straight into the passenger seat of the latest AK demonstrator car, the candy green and aptly named "Apple" which is powered by a phenomenal 630hp LS7 engine.
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| AK Demonstrators - "Rufus" and "Apple" (Photo courtesy of AK Sportscars) |
My driver for this experience was Trigger, one of the long standing members of the AK team. As we drove sedately out of the Westwood Industrial Estate I already had a huge grin on my face. But when we hit the dual carriageway sections on the outskirts of Peterborough and Trigger used a bit more throttle (within the speed limits of course!!) the grin gave way to an insane cackle. The power and handling of that car were insane. My stomach was somewhere in the boot!
One of the many Carroll Shelby legends is that he used to place a $100 bill on the dashboard of a Shelby Cobra 427 and if the passenger could pick the money up when the car was under full acceleration then they could keep it. I think if AK did that challenge then there would be very few, if any, winners!!!
I was grinning from ear to ear as we returned to the factory (and for several hours afterwards). I have to say that I was very impressed that, without me even asking, Carla arranged for Trigger to take Sam out for a quick drive (I'm guessing even more within the speed limit than my trip) which I thought was a really good thing to do. Sam didn't quite have the same grin when he returned; in typical teenager fashion he just summed the experience up as "that was loud".
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| I think he was impressed... |
We then spent some time looking round the factory. There was a rolling chassis which I took several photographs of for future reference, a bare body/chassis package ready for shipping out and some customer builds in progress as well as a couple of finished cars to look over. We also had a look over some of the owners cars that had turned up for the event got some good feedback about their various AK experiences. I met Mark Clayton again and spent some time looking over his car in a bit more detail (and asking him yet more questions about his build).
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| Rolling Chassis |
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| Bare Gen II Chassis |
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| Customer build in progress |
Jon Freeman (owner of AK Sportscars) gave a factory tour, taking us through the build process including chassis construction (explaining the differences between the various AK options) and body manufacture as well as talking about some of the factory builds in progress.
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| Factory Tour (photo courtesy of AK Sportscars) |
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| Body in mould |
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| Finished Body |
Now before making the trip up to Peterborough I had warned my wife that I was very likely going to place an order at the open day. But after talking to Jon and Wendi, and looking round the cars on show, there were a few final details / options that I decided I needed to mull over before taking the final plunge. The decision to go with AK was clear, but i was now unsure as to whether to go for the Gen III chassis or the Gen II. I had assumed I would go with the latest Gen III but in talking to Jon he suggested that the Gen III was only really needed for track days and the Gen II would be perfectly adequate for road use.
So having filled up on the excellent selection of cakes that had laid on, we set off home pondering chassis options, number of fuel fillers, style and number of roll hoops, nudge bars or quick lifts..............the choices are endless!
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