The rochdale

Like so many of the low-volume cars of the 1950s, the Rochdale marque came about when garage owners Frank Butterworth and Harry Smith started making special bodies for Austin 7s used in competition in 750 Motor Club events.

Initially working in aluminium, the pair adopted the newfangled fibreglass when it became popular and under the name Rochdale Motor Panels, started producing bodies to fit different chassis. The MkVI was followed by a rather random naming sequence including type C, type F and the ST, the initials standing for Sports Tourer.

The GT came about when the ST body proved to be rather too flexible and local consultant Richard Parker was enlisted to develop a more rigid solid roofed version. Both the ST and GT were designed to fit the Ford Popular chassis and the GT proved to be the company’s biggest selling model, no doubt partly due to the E-Type styling cues.

Rochdale followed the GT with something really rather impressive in the shape of the Olympic which used a fibreglass monocoque bodyshell – quite an achievement in 1960, even if Lotus did beat them to it with the Elite by a couple of years.

The Olympic continued in production until 1973, although from the mid 1960s the company’s diversification into the heating and ventilation business had taken the focus off car production.