Australian Automotive and aftermarket performance parts manufacturers ACL have gone in to voluntary liquidation.

The company which was born out of the famous Repco brand - the people responsible for Sir Jack Brabham’s world championship winning engine and Formula 5000 power units - filed for liquidation today leaving 200 jobs in doubt.

The liquidation comes only two month after an injection of Seven Million dollars of taxpayer funds.

Federal Industry Minister Senator Kim Carr said in June that ACL was so important to the Australian Automotive industry that the support was “not only warranted, but essential”.

Senator Carr claimed that 5,000 people could have faced unemployment across the industry as a flow-on effect of ACL closing.

The ACL Group started as a management buyout company when it acquired a group of businesses from Repco Ltd in 1986.

Repco found world fame when in 1966 the company modified a stock block Oldsmobile alloy engine to form the basis of Sir Jack Brabham’s World Championship winning race engine.

The company continued it’s involvement in motorsport well into the 70’s with the F5000 Repco Holden motor that also saw success in many famous Australian Sports Cars and Sports Sedans such as the HDT Torana XU1 V8 “Beast”, John McCormick’s “Ansett” Charger and Jim Smith’s “Camel” Rover.

The company also contributed to the design and construction of performance parts for the Torana SLR 5000 and A9X models as well as John McCormick’s F5000 Leyland P76 engine.

Repco continues as Australia and New Zealand’s largest auto parts reseller and supplier with a network of over 430 locations.

The company recently returned to motorsport through it’s sponsorship of Rally Australia, a round of the FIAWorld Rally Championship.

They have also supplied some sponsorship to Sir Jack Brabham’s granson Matthew who recently made his Formula Ford debut.

Repco is in no way conected or effected by the ACL collapse.