J'AIME JUNE 2019

stone’s throw away from the Bullring), to get my
hands on his latest creation; the Revolution 4x2. The
Revolution 4x2 is a beast of a car. It is essentially
a road-legal, MSA-approved racing car that is
eligible for a host of off-road championships. With
attention-grabbing styling, it backs up its looks with
a perfectly engineered chassis to handle the rugged
terrain and with very little weight to carry it has a
very high power-to-weight ratio of 466BHP/tonne.
To give that some perspective its power-to-weight is
equivalent to that of a Lamborghini Aventador SV!
To give me a taste of what the Revolution 4x2
is capable of, Steven took me out onto the track
in what can only be described as ten minutes of
adrenaline-fuelled, white-knuckle 4x4 rally action.
When I was younger I had a passenger ride in a
World Rally Championship car with Petter Solberg
and this experience ranks right up there with that!
The handling of the car over the bumps and the way
he was able to slide the rear of the car out to get the
rotation before flooring the throttle, sending your
eyeballs back in their sockets was very impressive. It
had so much grip it made very little work of the mud
and rock-filled track.
Next up it was my turn. Now, granted I had a
lot of pressure to perform considering my racing
background; not only would it be my very first
experience of racing on dirt, but I was also going up
against my upstart marketing-guru friend Jack Regan
who mistakenly thinks he’s Ayrton Senna incarnate.
Sadly he’s not, and thankfully I didn’t embarrass
myself too much after some expert tuition from
Steven, but I will let Jack tell that story in full in the
following article...
Even if you never buy an ATV, I implore you to
head down to Steven’s track for one of his driving
experiences. I promise you will thank me later.
Q&A With Steven Adams
What is your background in the automotive
industry?
I’m a chartered engineer by trade. My background
was in designing, developing and testing steering
suspension systems. I have worked all over the world
for companies such as DAEWOO, Daimler-Chrysler,
Bentley, and Jaguar-Landrover. The experience
I gained working for them helped me to gain an
understanding of the whole car, which enabled me to
develop my own car.
How old were you when you decided to start
Walker-Adams?
I was 29 when I started Walker-Adams as a company
back in 2001 doing engineering consultancy work
and then opened the track in 2004.
What was the deciding factor that made
you take a leap of faith to start Walker-
Adams?
After returning from working in the US, I needed
a limited company for my consultancy work. The
transition from consultant to full-blown manufacturer
happened while I was working at Jaguar between
2001 to 2004. It got to the stage that I could no
longer hold down a full-time job and build my own
business, so I had to take a leap of faith and quit the
day job.
Has it always been your dream to start a car
company?
I have always loved cars, and I decided early on to
go for my degree in engineering and went on to work
in the automotive industry. I got to the point where
I was doing more paperwork than engineering; the
further I moved up the ladder. There came a time
that I felt I had the expertise to build my own car
from start to finish, which sparked my desire to start
a car company. I have always been into off-road
driving and working on the Dodge Ram in America
pushed me more in that direction.
What have been some of your biggest
challenges so far?
The biggest problem in the early days was money. I
always knew low-volume manufacturing was a risky
business, even with wealthy-backers. This is why I set
up the track first. I got it to a stage where it became
profitable and then used some of the profits to help
develop the vehicles. The combination of the track
(off road karting/rally school), part sales and vehicle
sales all work together and means I do not need any
backers. Now my problem is time as there are not
enough hours in the day!
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