This time in Classic Kit Cars & Specials STEVE HOLE takes a look the work of Ogle Design and also the company’s founder, David Ogle. Photos from TKC MAG/totalkitcar archive unless credited.
Ogle Design continue to this day even though David, born in 1921 was tragically killed in a road accident in 1962 aged just 41. His legacy lives on, however.
Ogle Riley 1.5 was a design exercise – two were produced
He was a hugely talented industrial designer and he’d founded his eponymous company David Ogle Associates in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in 1954 and it rapidly became the ‘go-to’ design house in the UK.
David Slingsby Ogle was educated at Rugby School before studying law at Oxford University. In 1940 he joined the Fleet Air Arm and flew Supermarine Seafires (the marine version of the Spitfire) in North Africa, the Mediterranean and the South of France. He rose to the rank of Lt Commander.
He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for service and gallantry during the allied invasion of the South of France in March 1945. The DSC was followed by an MBE in June 1946.
He also had ‘RNVR’ after his name indicating that he was a member of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. As a matter of interest, Tim Dutton’s father Ted also served in the RNVR.
Post-war, he enrolled at the Central School of Art & Design in London studying Industrial Design, where he would have met Dr Tom Karen. He then joined electronics company Murphy in 1948, before moving to rivals Bush, for whom he designed the TR82 radio.
An Ogle Super SX100 model. The ‘Super’ was better equipped and can be identified by the chrome bumpers
From the start of Ogle Design his good friends Sir John Whitmore and John Ogier were not only directors of the company, but they provided funding, too.
Ogier had other business interests and was owner of Essex Racing (he lived in the county), which is why Ogle’s own range of cars was always pre-fixed by ‘SX’ which was a tongue-in-cheek tip of the hat to ‘ESSEX’.
Ogle’s studio created a wide array of products from gas ovens to heaters; from exhibition stands to product packaging. You name it, they could design it.
Talking of cars, a separate division of the company was set up in 1960 called David Ogle Ltd to handle sales of their Ogle Riley 1.5, SX250 and SX1000 (aka Ogle Mini).
A commission for a bespoke car from the larger-than-life character Boris Forter, MD of Helena Rubenstein cosmetics, based around Daimler Dart mechanicals and Ogle had form with Forter, as he already had a lucrative contract to design perfume box designs for Helena Rubenstein’s products.
Although Forter persuaded Ogle to build as many as a dozen ‘specials’ he guaranteed David that he could get his friends to buy them with the caveat that if he couldn’t persuade them to buy them, he gave an undertaking to buy them himself. Unfortunately, he didn’t.
The car was completed after Ogle’s death but only two were sold – one for Forter and the other for his girlfriend. Daimler was approached to take the concept on but wasn’t interested although it did later form the basis of the Reliant Scimitar GT (aka Reliant Sabre).
Sadly, David Ogle’s life ended on May 25, 1962. Having created the Ogle Mini, also known as the SX1000, he was heading for Brands Hatch circuit to demonstrate the Lightweight version to a gathering of journalists. He had sold 69 SX1000s by the time of his death.
Tom Karen described what happened to his friend and boss: “David got into a dice with another vehicle on the A1 at Digswell Hill, near Welwyn in Hertfordshire. Unfortunately, he lost control at 85mph and hit an oncoming van head-on. The car burst into flames on impact and was a fireball. Poor David never stood on chance.”
The Chequered Flag Garage was an Ogle SX100 distributor, as was John Sprinzel Ltd in Kensington, incidentally.
A tragic loss. A gifted man who clearly had so much more to offer.
Tom Karen was always very complimentary about Ogle whom he described as: “A very popular and generous man.” I’ve often seen him described as charismatic and charming.
Meanwhile, within three days of his death, Ogier and Whitmore had headhunted Tom Karen from electronics company Philips to take over at the revised David Ogle Design Ltd in Letchworth as MD and chief designer.
Karen had already had a short spell working at Ogle Design in 1959 and his reputation had grown considerably since. Tom steered the company until his retirement in 1995.
OGLE’S CARS
OGLE RILEY 1.5 (1959-1961 – 2 made)
Ogle lengthened the chassis of his Riley 1.5 for this stylish design exercise which he intended as a way of putting his company in front of others looking for design input on a car project. He wanted to prove that UK companies didn’t have to go to an Italian carrozzerie.
The Ogle 1.5 did have more than a touch of Alfa Romeo Giulietta about it though and was described as setting new standards for the use of glassfibre in cars.
Just a couple of months before his death, David Ogle had unveiled the Lightweight version. He tragically perished in one of the three made on the A1 en route to Brands Hatch in May 1962. PHOTO COURTESY OF SILODROME.COM
OGLE MINI/SX1000 (1961-1964 – 59 made)
One of the iconic coachbuilt Minis that were so popular during the sixties.
David Ogle ran into the same issue as every other coachbuilder though. BMC’s refusal to supply new components to outsiders. Ogle got round it by buying new Minis from his local dealership and removing the parts he needed and dumping the rest.
He did, however, use the windscreen and steering column from a Riley 1.5. Alternatively, customers could supply Ogle with their car and get it back within about six months converted into an Ogle Mini. Build quality was exemplary and the cars are very sought after today.
Of the 59 made several were 1275cc GT versions based on a Mini Cooper although a lot of Ogles probably had Cooper S engines fitted retrospectively, while others were probably turned into Lightweight GT versions.
A lovely old chap whoworked for Ogle Design, building SX1000s, reckoned that there were about twenty customer car conversions on top of the 62 (including three Lightweight GTs) factory built examples.
BMC did eventually agree to supply David Ogle with components but only on the condition that the word ‘Mini’ wasn’t used, hence the name switch to SX1000 (the ‘SX’ prefix being a tip of the hat to Ogle director, John Ogier’s Essex Racing operation.
Shortly after this, a more luxurious ‘Super SX1000’ version (997cc engine was standard fitment), was announced and this had reclining seats, headlight flashers (!), full carpeting, a heater and a rear seat squab. Visually they are easy to spot due to the chrome rather than GRP front bumpers, complete with over-riders.
Although mechanically almost identical to the ‘donor’ Mini the Ogle SX1000 was heavier but thanks to its slippery aerodynamic shape it could hit a claimed 99mph. It was more expensive though.
If the customer supplied their own Mini for conversion Ogle Design (the name for their car division) prices started at £550 (£8560 today, allowing for inflation) or a fully built SX1000 started at £1069 (approximately £16,637, today).
Meanwhile, the higher-spec Super SX100 started at £1176 (equal to around £18,302 in 2023). Put into perspective that this was some £535 more than the cost of a brand new Mini Cooper S in 1962!
Ogle himself also referred to the car – when in GT-spec – as the OGLE COOPER. Motor Sport magazine journalist Bill Boddy said that he preferred that name because SX1000 sounded like a Russian Solyuz rocket!
Graham Warner of Chiswick-based The Chequered Flag Garage was an official sales outlet for the SX1000 as was John Sprinzel in Kensington. Customers could choose from six colours which, for the record, were plum red, blue, silver, green, white and primrose yellow.
Famous owners included Stirling Moss.
OGLE SX1000 LIGHTWEIGHT GT (1962 – 3 made)
Thanks to the Mini’s sporting prowess David Ogle always felt that his SX1000 would be an ideal track car and so it proved. He enhanced the idea further by announcing a new Lightweight GT version in March 1962.
This version featured a spartan interior with no carpet, Microcell GRP bucket seats, lighter grade GRP bodyshell, with integral rollcage and, lowered suspension. It was mechanically identical to the standard car although a 1275GT engine was used.
Tragically though David Ogle perished in a Lightweight GT on the A1 in 1962 on his way to Brands Hatch to demonstrate his car to motoring journalists.
In 2003, Nostalgia Cars, builders of kit form Jaguar XK120 and C-type replicas, announced that they had been given permission to rebuild SX1000s as the NC1000. They displayed one at several kitcar shows over subsequent years. It’s not known how many they produced though.
OGLE SX250 – 1962 – 2 made
Based on Daimler Dart, the SX250 stemmed from Helena Rubenstein MD’s order for twelve specials. Ultimately, he only bought two of them though. Ogle Design approached Daimler to see if they had any interest in the project. They weren’t interested. In the end, Ogle Design, under Tom Karen, completed two examples before pulling the plug.
FLETCHER 1967-69 – 4 made
After David Ogle was killed in a tragic road accident, in May 1962, his eponymous project, the Ogle SX1000 (produced between 1961-63) lay dormant as Ogle Design, now run by Dr Tom Karen, didn’t want to continue with the car.
In early 1967, it was taken over by boat builder, Norman Fletcher (who was going out with Ogle’s daughter) as well as an alternative version, with a revised rear end that was never launched. Fletcher wanted something to keep his workers occupied during the winter months. He amalgamated the two car designs to create the Fletcher GT, retaining the Mini donor base.
Fletcher, based in West Bromwich, offered his car in kit form, also exploring the possibilities of motorsport. One of the four cars he produced was raced quite successfully by well-known Mini Cooper racer, John Handley.
Indeed, he qualified third overall at the prestigious Nürburgring 500km race of 1967 and was running in second place when the engine blew up, having qualified third …
Back in the March/April 2022 issue of TKC MAG in our regular Without Our Past feature we ran the image here of a hard-driven and battle-scarred Ogle SX taken at Silverstone in 1966.
I speculated as to who the driver might have been and wondered aloud for more information such as what caused the extensive front-end damage.
A chap called Paul Ogle (there’s a clue as to his interest, given his surname! He sadly passed away in 2026) squared the circle for us and filled in ALL of the blanks.
It turns out that the meeting was the 5th Clubman’s Championship round at Silverstone on Saturday, October 1, 1966.
The race we’re concerned with here though is the ten lap Coupe Motor Baldet for Grand Touring Cars.
According to the timing sheets supplied by Paul, there were 26 starters including a good cross section of specialist cars along with the decent drivers – there were four Ginetta G4 S2s, a Minijem (described as ‘Minijam’ in the programme!), a TVR, a Lotus Seven, a pair of Mini Marcoses, Richard Joseph in a Diva GT and even a fierce Emery-tuned Imp (driven by John Markey).
It was clearly quite a high profile series given that drivers included the maestro Willie Green who walked the race winning by over a minute, Syd Enever (MG), Jeremy Delmar-Morgan (Minijem manufacturer who didn’t start the race) and BTCC legend Matt Neal’s dad, Steve. The latter was part of the two car Richard Groves Racing works effort, with Speed Sport Conversions, Oselli Engineering and Cartune Engineering also having official entries.
The driver of ‘our’ car was the very accomplished John Handley, who was best known for racing (rallies and rallycross, too) Minis. He later became European Touring Car champion in 1968 and was chairman of the BRDC for a time. He died in 2001.
The damage to Handley’s car (listed as a Fletcher in the programme and actually owned by Gilbert R. Baird) was caused by a contretemps with a Lotus Seven (driven by Paul Pollard) although in one of our photos he’s clearly recovered from his off-track excursion although the car is extensively damaged and is being hassled by Stuart Hemsley in a Mini Marcos, obviously did manage to get past soon after, as he finished sixth with Handley beating five stragglers home in eleventh place.