Ron Hickman the 105E Ford Anglia. He became the director of Lotus Engineering in the 1960s, designing the first Lotus Europa as part of Lotus's GT40 project bid. He left Lotus in 1967. Hickman invented the wood-and-steel foldable Workmate bench after sawing through a piece of wood into a chair used as support, when making a wardrobe. His offer of a licence for the product he developed was rejected by several companies who could not see a large market for it, so Hickman sold the benches himself to professional builders at trade shows until Black & Decker saw the light in 1973
Lotus Europa number of Europas (and Elans) were produced bearing black-and-silver Lotus badges on the nose and steering wheel in place of the customary yellow-and-green ones. The official Lotus Cars website states these "black-badge" vehicles were to commemorate the death earlier in 1968 of Jim Clark, Lotus's champion Formula One driver, however this is debated by other sources. Contemporary road tests for the Europa S2 recorded a top speed around 120 mph (195 kph), 0-60 times of 9.3 secs, standing 1/4 mile times around 16.7 secs, and an overall fuel economy around 30 mpg (9.4 L/100 km). A small number of Series