Ogle Design

History

David Ogle set up Ogle Design at Letchworth in Hertfordshire in 1954, working first on industrial and household products — the Bush TR82 portable radio of 1959 is the best-remembered — and moving into transport design and small-scale car manufacture from 1959. About 66 Ogle SX1000s were built on Mini mechanicals, along with a handful of other cars including a rebodied Daimler SP250. Ogle was killed in a crash in one of his own SX1000s in 1962; Tom Karen took over as managing director and chief designer, car manufacture stopped, and the firm settled into consultancy.

Under Karen, who ran it until 1999, Ogle produced some of the most recognisable British designs of the period: the Reliant Scimitar GTE and Reliant Robin, the wedge-shaped Bond Bug three-wheeler, the Raleigh Chopper bicycle of 1970, the BSA Rocket 3, coach bodies for Plaxton and Duple, and — through its modelmaking side — Luke Skywalker's landspeeder for Star Wars. In 1974 the business was split into separate product design and transport design divisions.

The papal commission came in 1982. After the May 1981 attempt on Pope John Paul II's life, his pastoral visit to Britain required bullet-resistant vehicles, and four were built: two on Leyland Constructor truck chassis and two Range Rovers that Ogle designed and built with British Leyland, at a reputed £64,000 each. Each Range Rover carried a raised rear enclosure of armoured plate and bullet-resistant glass seating four — contemporaries compared it to a telephone box — taking the overall height to 102 inches, with run-flat tyres, police radios and the papal crest on a white bonnet. The brief throughout was that the Pope be clearly visible to crowds of a million or more. One car went on to the Vatican and was later used by Pope Benedict XVI; the other toured the Caribbean, passed into private hands, and is now the centrepiece of an exhibit at the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston.

In October 1999 Ogle Models and Prototypes sold the design business to Ogle Noor Ltd, incorporated that April and still active, which bills itself as the longest-running industrial design consultancy in Britain. The modelmaking and prototyping side continues separately as Ogle Models and Prototypes Ltd of Birds Hill, Letchworth — run by Len Martin from 2000 and by his son Philip Martin since 2018 — and marked its seventieth anniversary in 2024 doing rapid prototyping, laser sintering, 3D printing and modelmaking for the automotive, aerospace, medical and film industries.

Imagery

Vehicles in this registry (1)

• Ogle Range Rover Popemobile 1982 · Raised glass enclosure · converted

Sources & citations

• Ogle Design (founded 1954 by David Ogle at Letchworth, Hertfordshire; transport design and small-scale car production from 1959; Ogle killed in a car crash in 1962, Tom Karen took over as MD and chief designer and car production ceased; Raleigh Chopper, BSA Rocket 3, Reliant Scimitar GTE, Bond Bug, Robin, Plaxton and Duple coach bodies, Bush TR82; ~66 SX1000s; 1974 split into product and transport divisions; design business sold to Ogle Noor in October 1999) ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-10)
• 70th anniversary of Letchworth's Ogle Models and Prototypes (founded 1954 by David Ogle; Raleigh Chopper and the Star Wars landspeeder; Tom Karen's leadership after 1962; Len Martin joined 1975 and became MD in 2000; Philip Martin director since 2018; rapid prototyping and modelmaking today) ↗ — The Comet (accessed 2026-09-10)
• Ogle Noor Limited, company number 03745641 (incorporated 1 April 1999; active; registered office Unit 5 Old Farm Business Centre, Toft, Cambridgeshire) ↗ — Companies House (accessed 2026-09-10)
• A Vehicle Purpose Built For A Saint (four 1982 popemobiles: two on Leyland Constructor chassis and two Range Rovers designed and built by Ogle Design of Letchworth; bulletproof glass and under-floor armour; brief that the Pope be visible to crowds of over a million) ↗ — Marketing Lancashire (accessed 2026-09-10)
• 1982 Land Rover Range Rover 'Popemobile' by Ogle (raised armoured glass enclosure, run-flat tyres, £64,000 each, 102-inch overall height) ↗ — Story Cars (accessed 2026-09-10)