By Robert Bravender
If you’re of a literary sort, you might recognize the environs around New London, Mo., as the stomping ground of Samuel Clemens’ Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. For the famous author—aka, Mark Twain—grew up about 10 miles to the north in the classic Mississippi River town of Hannibal, white-washed fences, caverns, and all.
Today New London is part of the Hannibal Metropolitan Statistical Area but is still pretty rural and small, with a population around 970 (per 2018). Which makes it all the more remarkable that Rick Wilson was able to build his K&K Performance Automotive into a business that could compete with repair shops and dealerships anywhere in the region.
“We do a lot of drivability,” Wilson related. “That’s really the key to our reputation. We see quite a bit of the diagnostic stuff in the area. We’ve got five different scan tools, and instead of scanning just one computer in the car …”
