The Ashton-Evans was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

car manufactured in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

from 1919 to 1928 by Joseph Evans & Co of Liverpool Street Mills an engineering company who also made railway locomotives and aircraft parts. In 1919 a new company Ashton-Evans Motors Ltd was formed. The cars were designed by E Bailey who had been with

Sunbeam A sunbeam, in meteorological optics, is a beam of sunlight that appears to radiate from the position of the Sun. Shining through openings in clouds or between other objects such as mountains and buildings, these beams of particle-scattered sunl ...

and later J. Bedford. The first car of the marque designed by E Bailey was described as "a three-wheeler with four wheels" and had a rear track of only to avoid the need for a differential. The rear axle was suspended by a quarter elliptic spring fastened to the tubular chassis at the front and resting on a metal plate on the top of the rear axle which was located by the use of a

torque tube A torque tube system is a power transmission and braking technology that involves a stationary housing around the drive shaft, often used in automobiles with a front engine and rear drive. The torque tube consists of a large diameter stationary h ...

and two rods. It is not certain if any of these cars were sold. In 1920 Mr Ashton-Evans decided to find out what his customers wanted in an "owner driver's ideal" car and invited opinions. From the response he worked out that the car should have a four-cylinder water cooled engine not exceeding 12 taxable hp and be silent, vibrationless, easy to start and powerful. Gear changing should be silent and without the need to double declutch. There should be room for three people on the front seat. To meet this specification J Bedford designed a new car which became the Ashton 10.5 model, the Ashton-Evans name being temporarily dropped. This had a normal rear axle. Most cars featured -litre, 4-cylinder

Coventry Simplex Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, racing, and other specialty engine manufacturer. History Pre WW1 The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was reloca ...

engines and three-speed

constant-mesh gearbox A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system, where gear changes ...

es with selection made by dog clutches. Some of the early cars might have had two-cylinder engines. Two- and four-seat open bodies were available. Production of cars was slow and probably not profitable and in 1923 a single model, the 11/16 was made and the name returned to Ashton-Evans. A fire in 1924 badly hit production and car production was temporarily suspended in 1927 but never resumed. As many as 250 might have been made.

References

External links

1923 11/16 hp coupe advertisement
Vintage vehicles Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands {{Vintage-auto-stub

See also

References

External links