Ashcroft Transmissions

Ashcroft Transmissions has traded since 1988, originally as Automatic Conversions. The business was born, in its own words, 'as a quest for a reliable transmission after successfully destroying endless Series II & III gearboxes with a V8 engine'. Its founder Ian Ashcroft, a chartered mechanical engineer who had spent twenty years in manufacturing in maintenance and design roles, followed the automatic conversion with other developments aimed at driveline reliability.

His son David Ashcroft, after a Rolls-Royce apprenticeship, an engineering degree and a master's in technology management at Sussex, and a further year at Rolls-Royce in Derby, joined the firm in 1993 and developed it into its present form; he remains the main point of contact for customers and the company's technical adviser. Ashcroft Transmissions Limited was incorporated on 26 April 1999 and is registered under motor-vehicle maintenance and repair. Ian Ashcroft died in 2021.

The company describes itself as the leading supplier of remanufactured gearboxes, transfer cases and differentials for the Land Rover marque, in the United Kingdom and overseas, and also makes its own heavy-duty axle parts: diff centres, CV joints, halfshafts, ring-and-pinion sets and other specialist items for Rover 4x4s. Its catalogue runs from Series and R380 manual boxes and LT230 transfer-box ratio changes to Defender automatic conversion kits, MT82 output-shaft upgrades and the Ashcroft ATB automatic torque-biasing limited-slip differential for Rover axles, which is also sold through Land Rover parts dealers. The works are at Units 5 and 6, Stadium Estate, Cradock Road, Luton, forty miles north of London by the M1.

By 2025 the family-owned company had 38 staff in an 18,000 square-foot facility and had supplied more than 4,000 standard gearboxes and many specialised transmissions in the preceding year; Land Rover Monthly reported on a visit in April 2025.