In 1981, Aston Martin established an engineering services subsidiary under the name Aston Martin Tickford. As Aston Martin’s fortunes evolved, the Tickford division expanded into a purpose-built engineering centre in Milton Keynes and a production facility in Bedworth. In March 1984, the business became independently owned under CH Industrials plc, a former stakeholder in Aston Martin.
Although much of Tickford’s work involved behind-the-scenes engineering projects for major automotive manufacturers, the company gained wider recognition by combining its coachbuilding heritage with high-performance engineering. This led to the development of iconic vehicles such as the 140 mph turbocharged Tickford Capri, created in partnership with Ford. Building on this success, Tickford collaborated with MG on the Maestro Turbo, worked again with Ford on the homologation-special Sierra Cosworth RS500, and engineered the road-legal version of the Ford RS200 rally car.
In 1991, Tickford entered into a joint venture with Ford Australia, forming Tickford Vehicle Engineering Pty Ltd (TVE), a high-performance vehicle division based in Melbourne. Much of the vehicle development work was undertaken at Tickford’s Milton Keynes headquarters. TVE produced a range of performance derivatives of the Ford Falcon, including the XR6, XR8 and the T Series models (TE50, TS50 and TL50). Launched in October 1999 under the Ford Tickford Experience (FTE) brand, the T Series was a limited-production range with fewer than 500 examples built. The T3 became the final model to carry the Tickford name in Australia. During this period, the company also established operations and partnerships in Germany and the United States.
In 1996, Tickford consolidated its operations by closing its Bedworth facility and relocating all production and engineering activities to a new site in Milton Keynes. The company’s focus increasingly shifted away from traditional coachbuilding towards advanced automotive technologies, including the use of carbon fibre composites. However, in 1999 Tickford returned to low-volume vehicle production after securing the contract to build the Ford Racing Puma, a road-going homologation model developed from the Ford Puma. Limited to just 500 units, all examples were produced during 2000 at a dedicated facility established in Daventry.
While manufacturing the Ford Focus RS in 2001, Tickford Group, including its operations in the UK, Germany, Australia and the USA, was acquired by Prodrive, the renowned British motorsport and engineering company. Prodrive subsequently divested the German and American businesses, while Tickford Vehicle Engineering Australia was sold to Ford in 2002 and rebranded as Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV). As a result, the Tickford name, which had become closely associated with high-performance Ford vehicles in Australia, was retired from the market.
