OWEN ASHLEY

Owen Ashley has always had a passion for motor sports and, after qualifying as a mechanical engineer, built his first full vehicle at age 19. He has gone on to design and build 170 different types of racing and road vehicles for, amongst others, BMW (SA), GM (SA), and Toyota (SA) and has constructed over 400 vehicles in total.

He was approached by Toyota South Africa in 1981 to fill the position of motorsport manager and was charged with the task of building a four-wheel drive rally car, which went on to win numerous South African rallies against the likes of the Works Audi, Nissans, VWs, etc. Toyota Team Europe adopted the gearbox and transmission design and proceeded to win the World Rally Championships for four out of seven years running in Cologne, Germany.

On leaving Toyota, he was put in charge of technical aspects of all motorsport in South Africa for SA Motorsport Control, managing technical rules enforcement for the sport.

Owen formed his own company, Owen Ashley Auto Developments, in Cape Town during the late 1980’s to design and manufacture specialised one-off and low volume vehicles, as well as consulting for various other motor sport related companies including Cape Advanced Vehicles (CAV), of which he became MD of shortly after. Under his management, CAV exported 100 road-certified CAV GT40’s to the US over the following years and has built in excess of 150 vehicles to date. Owen also joined Optimal Energy as consultant in 2006 to assist with their research and development of an electric car.

He was also responsible for the creation of the Spirit Supercar Series, which is still racing after 11 years, and has, more recently, initiated the new Masters V8 Series for 2007.

NEIL HAWKINS

Neil’s passion for motor racing also started at a young age with his participation in kart racing in 1990 at the tender age of 10 years old. He has gone on to perfect his driving skills and has competed in Regional Clubmans, National Formula Fords, Super Saloons, Oval Racing and Super Car racing.

Neil has achieved the following results:

When not racing and winning championships, Neil manages the Owen Ashley Auto Developments workshop in Cape Town, South Africa, test drives all new vehicles and provides advanced driver training.