[london]

AC have responded to comments regarding the MkV on the AC Owners Club Forum (http://www.racecar.co.uk/acoc/forum/...p?TOPIC_ID=216) as follows:

To all members of the AC Owners Club,

I love this Brand and on occasions I look at some of the forums set up supposedly to support it. Up until now I have refrained from lowering myself to the level of some of the contributors to respond to some of the ridiculus comments. But now having seen my name being quoted in some of the comments I believe I need to put the record straight. I sincerely hope this is the only time I will ever feel compelled to respond as to be honest I have a lot of better things to do.
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This statement is prepared by John Owen in response to the many comments being posted on the AC Owners Club chat Forum.

AC Cars is currently based in Malta. We brought 10 - 40' containers of parts, machines, Jigs and equipment over from the UK. We took over an empty factory without any services, we have installed all the equipment, employed 15 local staff with various skills, trained them, made new moulds, jigs and tooling, established a new network of suppliers both through imports and local sources.

Believe me it has not been easy for many reasons. A number of cars have been produced, the early cars being prototypes which were used in the training the staff and prove out of the new moulds and processes.

We are now in a position to and have proved we are capable of producing cars of the quality expected by AC owners.

The AC MKV is a new model, it is not referred to as a 'Cobra' although obviously has many common features. The car has to comply with current regulations which has necessitated a number of design changes to the build spec. Many of the MKIV and CRS donor components are now obsolete and have therefore had to be replaced with modern equivalents. We have upgraded the car mechanically with the selection of new high performance brakes and the addition of power steering, initially on the RHD variant. All of this takes time and a lot of effort.

I read some of the comments on the Club forum and it depresses me. Not one person who make the comments has visited the factory, no one has contacted me at the factory to ask questions about the cars, the factory or even about the beautiful island of Malta. I object to my name being used (sometines spelt incorrectly!) in speculation as to my personal feelings working with AC.

All I read in the Forum is speculation about what is supposedly happening in Malta, which is mostly totally unfounded.

2007 will see more cars being produced to a quality level I am personally proud of. This the beginning of a new era for AC,it has taken time to get going and if anyone doubts our commitment they should have a go at producing a complete car from raw materials.

I have been in Malta for just over 2 years, I love the place and I have enjoyed the challenge, albeit being very hard work. I appreciate that the only way we will shut up many of the critics is to produce cars, This is what we will be doing this year, we have orders and will supply.

I welcome anyone who comes to Malta to contact me to arrange a visit the factory to see for yourself what we are doing.

If someone has a question about AC past or present, technical or otherwise ask me and I will do my best to give them an answer as I have all the historic records here, they haven't been scrapped!!

We are setting up a parts supply facility for many of the cars past and present and will help where possible to supply the parts from stock or advise where best to obtain them.

I hope this may put a few of you straight on what is happening at AC and may be stop some of the ridiculous comments being made and maybe I might read some support for the company that without it there wouldn't be a club!

Maybe next time I visit the Forum I will be pleasantly pleased at the comments and not be depressed!!

Statement by:
John Owen (Maltese sun)
Chief Engineer
AC Cars
owenjfo@gmail.com
+356 79289427