HE admits he’s a typical “tight” Yorkshireman.

But Ashley Pickup’s £20 investment while heading through Manchester Airport on holiday has paid off – in some style.

Ashley, 33, of Lockwood, has just taken delivery of a £170,000 supercar and now owns a motor worth £50,000 more than his house.

The gleaming red high-tech Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing is regarded as one of the world’s finest.

Air-conditioning engineer Ashley had mocked his pal Eddie Knight for purchasing an identical ticket when they went to watch a Manchester United match.

But in the March supercar draw from Best of the Best, Ashley bought a ticket at Manchester Airport and won the car.

He admits he was shaking as Best of the Best managing director William Hindmarch, 37, presented him with his prize at his end terraced home – valued at £120,000.

Ashley said: “I still don’t believe it.

I don’t gamble, do the National Lottery or even the Grand National – I only bought the ticket because I was bored.

“I’d been with my mate Eddie on the way to watch Manchester United a few months earlier and when he bought a ticket I said ‘don’t waste your money.’

“But this time I got talking to the cheeky guy selling the tickets and another scraggy guy with his family came over and said he’d go halves if I bought three with him.

“The guy selling the tickets joked are you going to cut the car in half and I said there and then just give me one ticket – I don’t need to buy three for £40 I’ll win it with one.

“I am a Yorkshireman, I don’t like spending it...I am squeaky tight.

“This win isn’t going to start some big spending spree”.

Former footballer Ashley added: “I was on the books at Oldham Athletic when I was 14 – if I hadn’t started drinking and going out and had applied myself instead I might have been able to buy one of these before now.

“I am now planning to emigrate to Australia, so this win couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I bought the house at the peak of the market about four years ago and there’s about £20,000 in it.

“I am worrying about getting paid and not having any work over here.

“Some people in my game are doing jobs for nowt, so I might as well go to Australia and work there”.

He said when he got the call to say he had won, he did not think it was for real.

“I saw the number on my phone and when I heard this posh London guy I thought it was my cousin from down south winding me up and said ‘Neil is that you?’

“He asked me what sort of car I drove and when I told him a Golf he said ‘You’ve just won a Mercedes Gullwing SLS or a Ferrari worth £170,000’.

“‘I laughed and said ‘what are you for real?’

“I still thought it was my cousin winding me up”.

Best of the Best managing director Mr Hindmarch, who turned up at Ashley’s end terrace in the Mercedes, said: ‘We’ve been giving cars like this away every month for 10 years and nobody really believes me when I first ring up.

“To get the win with his first ticket purchase must make Ashley the luckiest man in Britain”.

IT certainly lives up to its “supercar” billing.

The Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing is powered by a 6.3 litre AMG engine developing 420 kW/ 571 hp and 650 Nm of torque.

The car weighs 1620 kg but shifts from 0 to 62mph in 3.8 seconds

It has a top speed of 197mph

It was launched only last year with a price tage of £170,000

The fuel consumption is 13.2 litres per 100 kilometres.

Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson said: “It is going to be fast. Seriously fast.”