Rare Brit kit car
We can pretty well guarantee you won’t find a herd of these at any local car show. The 1958 Rochdale GT is one of a string of specials developed by the British firm out of Manchester, from 1948 through to 1973.
These were better than average ‘kit’ cars, using a sleek alumnium body on a spaceframe and a Ford Popular driveline. That means a 1200cc four-cylinder sidevalve engine (in this case running twin SU carburettors) and a four-speed manual gearbox.
Rochdale is one of a surprisingly large number of small-scale Brit makers that popped up in post-war UK. It started building race bodies for Austin 7 chassis and expanded into road cars. The GT was its third-generation road car and was lauded at the time for being more sophisticated than many of its rivals.
From 1960, the GT was built on Rochdale’s own chassis. All up, some 1350 are thought to have been built.
This example is in Canberra and priced at $20,000.
More on kit cars: see our 1982 Liege feature
Unique Cars auction results listing