Looking for Ascort history - Plate #005

I am a newbie on this site, but was thinking that someone here just may know something about the early history of the Ascort TSV 1300 that I am restoring,

My car is fitted with plate #005 and I think that it was probably the 3rd car built. The car was probably registered BXL-022 and was painted silver, with tan interior. It was repainted metalic green then red, then back to silver in its first year. (Yes that is correct and a few of the other cars were also repainted on a regular basis during that period.) It was also fitted with a towbar (for towing the Ascort Sonic boat?)

In 1961 or 62 the car was involved in an accident (I believe that Mirek Craney may have have run off the road and hit a tree in it). The car had the left front corner replaced at the Ascort factory at Tempe. (The cut line can be found under the paint on my car.)


It is then that the trail runs cold for 10 years. The car was painted white and was obviously given a very hard life and received minor body damage. During that time period the engine was removed, the interior was stripped out and the dash was removed and replaced with an ugly ply dash. (I believe that the original may have been used for a RHD conversion by Peter Legge on the LHD prototype as the bit that was missing on mine matches the one now fitted to that car). Other identifiers of that time period were the lime green paint in the engine bay, a perspex rear window, a broken rear bumper and chrome handles on the rear bonnet.

In the early 1970s the car came north to Toowoomba and sat in the front yard of a house in Grenier St with a "for sale" notice on it until I bought it looking like this. (The photos look better than it was.)


I did some work in the early years and then stored it for almost 30 years. (Some may have seen it at VW Warwick in 2007, sitting near Barry's Ascort). I am now getting serious and have started making some significant progress.

I would love to hear if anybody can fill in the missing gaps in the history of my car. I would also love to learn more on the history of any of the cars as I have been collating the history and collecting photos etc.

Please help with information if you can.

After no responses here I developed the web site www.ascort-tsv-1300.com and also an Ascort Facebook site.

Since this time I have received definite proof that my car was BXL-022 but there was still a missing gap in the car's history in the 1960s.

A few days ago I received an email on the web site email address from someone saying that he used to own an Ascort rego BXL-022 in 1963/64. He did not realise that I was the owner of the car when he sent the email. The missing history is now much smaller.

Restoration work continues slowly with hundreds of hours being spent on it and things are starting to head in the right direction. Almost every part on the car needs major work and many parts have had to be scratch built to keep them true to the original design. With so few cars and a number of survivors being modified I feel a need to keep as close to original design as I can.

Maybe one day I will eventually get it completed.

Good to hear you are perservering with the restoration and I wish you all the luck in finding out the missing info.

Feel free to share some pictures of your progress as you can as well.

Yogie

Keep up the good work, let me know if you find a Sonic for sale....!

empi wrote:Keep up the good work, let me know if you find a Sonic for sale....!

You will have to line up after me 😎 After all, it was my #005 car that is pictured on the brochure towing the sonic.

A surviving sonic hull has now been located and it is in good condition. I understand that the owner does intend to restore it.

Yogie wrote:Good to hear you are perservering with the restoration and I wish you all the luck in finding out the missing info.

Feel free to share some pictures of your progress as you can as well.

Yogie

I will look at starting a thread about my Ascort efforts.

I WANT A SONIC!!! Ask the guy who has one to make a mould!

A tiny tidbit of information about Ascorts. When I was a kid living in Camberwell, a neighbour worked at Channel Nine. Occasionally my neighbour had a visit from a lady I believe was Elaine McKenna, the singer. She drove a car that I was fascinated with. It was a red Ascort.
Cheers..........Wayne

hulbyw wrote:A tiny tidbit of information about Ascorts. When I was a kid living in Camberwell, a neighbour worked at Channel Nine. Occasionally my neighbour had a visit from a lady I believe was Elaine McKenna, the singer. She drove a car that I was fascinated with. It was a red Ascort.
Cheers..........Wayne

Hi Wayne

Yes you are correct she did have a red Ascort. She sold the car in 1961 and the car has remained in the same Melbourne family since.

The person who bought the car was an official at the Sandown circuit and the car could often be seen in the car park there. In the mid 80s the car passed to a son and last year it changed hands again to a grandson. It is understood that the car is now undergoing restoration.

Last year the car was advertised on Gumtree, but I think that this was a bit of a fishing exercise to find the value of the car at the time when it changed hands within the family.

I have a brief account of the known surviving Ascorts on my web page. http://www.ascort-tsv-1300.com/Survivors.htm
My cars are #005 which is a very early car, (the one receiving the new front corner) and the blue car (not the racing one).

Mark

hulbyw wrote:A tiny tidbit of information about Ascorts. When I was a kid living in Camberwell, a neighbour worked at Channel Nine. Occasionally my neighbour had a visit from a lady I believe was Elaine McKenna, the singer. She drove a car that I was fascinated with. It was a red Ascort.
Cheers..........Wayne

Car is now at AVWPC in Croydon

Here it is!!

Cool stuff,..
Love this kind of perseverance and preservation for any car,.. especially rare ones.
Good on you.👍

I think Barry with the rat blue drag one has a few Ascorts from memory.
T54

Thanks empi. Just up the road. I will go and ask to have a look at it tomorrow. Your photo doesn't look much like it did when I was a kid. It was pristine then. I fell in love with it and had no idea it was VW based. I loved everything about it, especially the proportions and style. Still do
Cheers....Wayne

I will start a blog on my cars in the Member Rides section.

-> Turbo 54. Yes Barry has 3 cars. His blue drag rat car, the yellow car which is for restoration and the bones of the New Zealand car.