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 Cars the recognition in that category in 2002. Lotus cars wore the badge of the award for a number of years. Lotus cars appeared in two James Bond movies, "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) and "For Your Eyes Only" (1981). The former was a Lotus Esprit S1 nicknamed "Wet Nellie" which in the movie became not only amphibious but a submarine; the latter was a Lotus Esprit Turbo, specially commissioned, of which there were two in the film. In the popular 1960s TV series "The Avengers", the female lead characters drove Lotuses. Emma Peel had two Lotus Elan convertibles, a