Ron Hickman Ron Hickman Ronald Price Hickman OBE (21 October 1932 – 17 February 2011) was a South African-born, Jersey-based car designer and inventor who designed the original Lotus Elan, the Lotus Elan +2 and the Lotus Europa, as well as the Black & Decker Workmate. Hickman was born in Greytown, Natal, South Africa, where he worked as a courthouse clerk after leaving high school. He moved to London in the 1950s where he was employed by a music publisher. From 1954 Hickman worked for the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham first as a clay modeller and later he helped to style
Lotus Seven Twin Cam 1,600, as in the Lotus Elan, was used. There was also a model, sold in the US with a Coventry Climax engine and independent rear suspension. The Lotus Seven was designed with racing in mind, and lightness was of primary concern to Chapman. A front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels (a similar layout to most cars of the day) and a very lightweight steel spaceframe was covered with unstressed aluminium panel bodywork. The body panels were mainly flat to avoid the expense of more elaborate curved bodywork, and the simple cloth lined plastic doors were hinged from the