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 Europa S M32 6-speed manual transmission. This allows the car to accelerate from in around 5.5 seconds, and in around 13.8 seconds. The Europa S can attain a maximum speed of . The Europa S model was not a sales success. Due to this reason, Lotus engineering director Roger Becker took charge of the car’s development programme and the Europa SE variant was launched replacing the Europa S. It was an improved version of the Europa S with an improved engine and other driving amenities. The Europa SE utilises the same engine as the Europa S, but is fitted with a revised