Vehicle Story
David Slingsby Ogle was unquestionably a remarkable man. He lived, as he sadly and prematurely died, seizing the day, heading flat-out for the horizon, and bringing passion and flair to all his endeavours. Ogle joined the Fleet Air Arm in 1940 and flew combat missions in a Supermarine Seafire (the naval iteration of the Spitfire) in North Africa and the Mediterranean. His successes were to bring him rapid promotions to the rank of Lieutenant Commander as well as a Distinguished Service Cross at the end of the war for “distinguished service and gallantry during the invasion of the South of France.”
Following the war Ogle studied Industrial Design at the Central School of Art and Design in London. Brief spells at Murphy Radio and Bush Radio ensued with Ogle’s first notable designs being the iconic and ubiquitous TR82 transistor radio and SRP31D record player (you’ll know them when you see them) for the latter. By 1954 Ogle had founded his eponymously named design firm on the back of a contract with former employers, Bush.
Industrial design work soon took a back seat to automotive design, however, with Ogle developing a handsome design concept based on a 1.5L Riley, known simply as the Ogle 1.5. This concept helped Ogle Design establish its credentials as a serious coachbuilder with an eye for quality that most of its British competitors lacked. Hence when the SX1000 appeared in December of 1961 it was enthusiastically received.
Based on the, then, pretty new BMC Mini, early examples were reliant on customers providing their own donor Mini Cooper cars to which Ogle took the oxy-acetylene torch, charging £536 5s for the privilege and taking the total cost to almost twice that of the donor car’s. Despite all that, demand was strong. So much so that BMC subsequently agreed to supply Ogle with Mini Cooper rolling chassis on the condition that no mention was made of the “Mini” name in any marketing. From there onwards all SX1000s were supplied as a turnkey offering at a cost of £1,190.
In 1962 disaster would strike. Ogle was progressing along the A1 at Digswell Hill, at speed. He was on his way to demonstrate an SX1000 racing prototype at Brands Hatch and was thought to have been doing around 85mph when his car struck a slow-moving van. His diminutive car burst into flames and Ogle died at the scene. He was a mere 40 years old and survived by wife Dawn and four young children. In the wake of this tragedy a handful of partially completed SX1000s were finished before production ceased at the end of 1963. A mere 69 cars were thought to have been produced by that time.
