NG Henley

NG Henley (Cortina)
I have just been digging through photos and found a good one you may like of my NG/pastiche Henley, that I built in 1990. It was the first chassis and bodyshell produced and completed from Peter Fellows. I ordered it before they had even produced one and it was a very difficult “Birth” as it took me 11 months to get the front wings. In truth I made quite a lot of the bracketry and worked out how all it went together, as it only ever came with the Sierra manual. Believe me they were 2 totally different animals. Anyway it took me 16 months start to finish, I ran it for about 7 months, and then, due to having to buy a pram etc, I sold it in 1992. In 2007 I bought it back from the guy I sold it to. I did many alterations, electric fuel pump,  fitted home made inlet manifold and set of Kawasaki ZZR1100 carbs with bell mouth inlets. Full stainless 2 ¼ inch exhaust with Morgan stainless silencer and twin tail pipe. I had it rolling road tested and produced almost 130bhp at the rear wheels. In September 2010 I sold it to a guy from France, he flew over to the UK, bought it and doive it home, it now lives in Toulouse. The new owner was Mr Eric Thellier. I have attached a photo you can use in your list of models as you wish as it is the only one I can see that is missing from the list. Kevin Brookes 10 March 2019

My car is from the Pastiche era and is Cortina based. Pastiche adapted Green’s Sierra design for the then cheaper and more plentiful Cortina components. Though I don’t think the factory ever completed one and the kit was certainly not fully developed when the factory went bust. Furthermore, the new owners GTM and the subsequent buyers of the Ford models, Triple C (of Challenger E-type fame) decided to drop the Cortina because by that time (about 1993?) donor Sierras were becoming more plentiful – I’ve seen at least 6 Cortina based samples that have made it onto the road through the diligence and ingenuity of the builders/owners (my kit delivered 1990 on the road 1997) and it won the ‘best Henley’ plaque at the rally one year – I removed it from judging after that as there are too few Henleys! It is very much a DIY (design it yourself) job. It has all the advantages of extra space that the New Milton operation tried to build into the TS model they spent so long trying to create. (they measured my car!)

Peter Willmot (member 418)