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 Tested maximum power: 108–126 bhp (net) (depending on the model); top speed: , 0–60 mph in 7.9 seconds, 0–100 mph 21.8 seconds. As with the two seater Elan, the exact number of +2s produced is unknown. The estimated total is approximately 5,200. However, John Bolster's "The Lotus Elan and Europa: A Collector's Guide" provides a number of 3,300. Fewer than 1,200 of these cars remain in the roads today. The Lotus M100 Elan was launched in August 1989, reviving the Elan nameplate after 14 years. A two-seater convertible sports car, designed in-house by Lotus, it featured an engine and manual