Manufactured by either Mr. Freddie Coals, in his machine tool factory just off the North Circular Road in London, or by the Burnett Machine Tool Company of Mytongate in Hull (makers of the very similar Granville "Star") the "Olympic" lathe was marketed by the once well-known Rex Hacksaw & Tool Company of Wembley, Middlesex. It was, essentially, an improved version of the Granville Senior, sold for some years in the early 1950s by Corbett's (Lathes) Ltd. of Nottingham.
With a 4-inch centre height (thought to have actually been 4.25") the Olympic was offered with a choice of between-centres capacities: 21.5", 24" and 36" that gave overall length of 38.5", 48.5" and 53" respectively.
Flat-topped and 4.5-inches wide, the bed used the same carriage guiding principle as the Myford ML7, with narrow vertical ways and the thrust taken on a shorter inside face on the saddle. Other aspects of the lathe were ML7-like as well: the tailstock was virtual copy, as was the apron and the T-slotted cross slide - though the latter had 6" of travel rather than the 5" of the ordinary ML7. The headstock was, however, completely different and fitted with a hardened and ground 0.82" bore spindle running in Skefco tapered roller races with its nose bored No. 3 Morse taper, threaded 13/8" x 8 t.p.i. and backed by a 1.437" register--not quite up to South Bend 9-inch or Boxford standards, but close.
12 spindle speeds were provided, from 40 to 1800 r.p.m, obtained by the use of a very heavy, all-cast-iron countershaft bolted to the back of the bed. The 1425 r.p.m. 0.5 h.p. motor carried a double-diameter pulley and there were three direct-drive speeds to the headstock and a 6:1 ratio, full-width backgear.
Screwcutting was by changewheels (with the option of a Boxford-like gearbox that must have been identical to that offered for the Granville "Star" lathe) with 14 included in a set that also contained a 127 metric translation wheel. The drive passed through an ordinary tumble-reverse mechanism - fitted with an easy-to-grip Myford-type acorn-shaped plastic knob on the end of its spring-plunger indent operating lever.
Looking very like the unit fitted the to Granville senior, the carriage unit has 8.5-inch long saddle wings, a full-length, T-slotted cross slide with 6 inches of travel and a 180° swivel top slide with a degree scale graduated in intervals of 1°. The micrometer dials zeroed and were marked in intervals of 0.001".
A full range of the usual accessories was available including a set of draw-tube Crawford C3 collets from 1/16th to 1/2" with a nose-piece adaptor and spindle thread cover; Burnerd 3 and 4-jaw chucks;  plain and swivelling milling slides and machine vice; fixed and travelling steadies and a cabinet stand.
The Olympic weighed, complete with motor and countershaft, from 230 to 250 lbs.