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 Elan hardtop was also offered. The S2 gave way to the S3 in 1965, which provided a fixed-head coupe (FHC) alongside the drop head coupe (DHC). The S4 followed in 1968 and the Elan Sprint was introduced in 1970, both available in DHC and FHC form. Production of the Sprint ceased in 1973. The standard (Std) S2, S3 & S4 models were also available in a slightly more powerful and luxurious "Special Equipment" variant, generally referred to as the SE (e.g. Lotus Elan S3 SE) In the UK the Elan was offered as a fully assembled vehicle and, for tax avoidance