1961 Ashley 1172GT Coupe
Registration No. 357 BOT
I first heard of this Ashley 1172 GT Coupe in
November 2023
It had been shared to Ashley Laminates from
another FB Group and was originally posted
by the original builder,
Roger Johnson.
I immediately contacted Roger introducing myself
and these Ashley Archive Websites to him
and asking if he would like to share
all his details with me in order to produce this
Webpage for his Ashley,
to which he replied as follows:
It is over 60 years since I built it and some details are therefore a little rusty. (Many of us can relate to that. Ed)
It was an Ashley 1172 GT one piece bodyshell.
Chassis was a ladder frame with TR2 front suspension and a Ford Zephyr 4 engine. The rear axle was standard Ford 10 but the diff. had a different crown and pinion but I can't remember the ratio.
The gearbox was Zephyr 4 but modified to 4 speed by some engineering company in the West midlands.
The engine was a modified/tuned Zephyr 4 but this was a mistake and I wish that I had stuck with the 1172 one and had it modified by Willment to overhead inlet valve among other performance enhancements.
I never managed to cure the overheating problems 100% and the modified inlet/exhaust manifolds meant that the twin SU carbs prevented the bonnet from fully closing.
Note the holes I had to cut in the bonnet to accommodate the carbs. This was more neatly done later when I moulded a bulge/scoop on the bonnet.
The seats were sourced from another car but I can't remember which.
Incidentally the car was registered as an
"Ashley Johnson Special".
Hope this helps with some of the details,
Regards Roger
I had searched in the UK registration Bible and
found that Roger had registered the
"Ashley Johnson Special"
with the Southampton C.C. in 1961 but
there is no record of it in the DVLA Database
I then asked a few questions, like how long he had
the Ashley, when he sold it, it's Colour, etc.
To which he replied that the car body was Red gelcoat and he didn’t paint it and he had
kept the it for 2 or 3 years before he had
to trade it in for a Morris 1000 in late ‘63 or ‘64, as a New baby meant that two seats were not enough.
(a story heard many times in those days. Ed)
He also added that he has owned forty other
cars since the Ashley and that details have
tended to merge into each other and sadly,
this is the only photo that he had taken of it.
Also mentioning that at the time he lived in the south and Southampton C.C. was the nearest
point to register it.
To hopefully help with having only this one photo
I have used an AI App to repair and colour it
to bring it out of the past and into the present.
Hope you approve Roger. Ed
kept the it for 2 or 3 years before he had
to trade it in for a Morris 1000 in late ‘63 or ‘64, as a New baby meant that two seats were not enough.
(a story heard many times in those days. Ed)
He also added that he has owned forty other
cars since the Ashley and that details have
tended to merge into each other and sadly,
this is the only photo that he had taken of it.
Also mentioning that at the time he lived in the south and Southampton C.C. was the nearest
point to register it.
To hopefully help with having only this one photo
I have used an AI App to repair and colour it
to bring it out of the past and into the present.
Hope you approve Roger. Ed
So if you have owned it or have any
information about this
Ashley 1172 GT Coupe
Registration No.
357 BOT
(originally registered by Southampton C.C. in March 1961)
please email me on
[email protected]
or
use the contact page on this site to contact me,
so that I can update this page.