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
Simon Cox (car designer) Show and seeing the Porsche 928 for the first time. Cox is a highly experienced and ex-RCA designer, he is well known for his independence of spirit and for producing ICONIC Designs that have set well-known brands on new paths. He was sponsored by Ford Motor Company while at the RCA, but he elected to move to Lotus where he set up a new designstudio with Peter Stevens, producing several Lotus designs including the Lotus Esprit, Lotus Elan and Isuzu 4200R concept launched at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1988. Cox then moved to Isuzu establishing a UK based design