They were both designed by the same guy, Ron Hickman, a So. African designer who became rich from the Workmate, as B & D have made 65 million (!) of them!. You'll never guess where the prototype Workmate got its re-purposed parts from!
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92136
Lotus, Ron Hickman and nearly no GT40
If a well-known sports car manufacturer and two people had it their way in 1963 there wouldn’t have been a GT40.
Here’s the story. It all begins with South African, Ron Hickman, born in 1932 and who grew up in the small town of Greytown in the Natal province.
An accomplished pianist, by age 17 he’d become an Associate of the Trinity College of Music in London, with a Pianoforte Performer’s Diploma. A natural designer, he used to carve car models from wood and to earn pocket money he would draw cars for their owners. After school he joined the Department of Justice and for the next six years was trained in all aspects of the law. Suddenly in 1955 Ron felt he couldn’t handle the excitement of the legal profession, borrowed a 100 pounds from his father and set sail for England, like many young South Africans at the time who wanted experience of the bigger picture in the Northern Hemisphere.
Because of his music background the only company name he knew in London was Boosey & Hawkes, distributors of musical instruments. He stopped by and asked for a job and as luck would have it there was a vacancy in the accounts department. He was asked to report to the appropriately named Miss B Sharp (honest!) and for the time being the young Ron at least had an income.
Then one day a newfound friend told him that there was an advert in a London newspaper, placed by Ford of Great Britain, looking for clay modellers. Ron rushed over to Ford and got the job. After seven months he was offered a job as stylist, no mean achievement for a young man without a formal art qualification!
Apart from working on well-known Ford products including the Anglia there were plans for an Anglia based sports car mainly for the American market, but as Austin-Healey, MG and Triumph were already well established in that market Ford dropped the idea.
A meeting with Lotus boss, Colin Chapman, at the 1956 London Motor Show led to Ron joining Lotus in 1958. His first task was to get the Elite, which had suffered a long gestation period, into production and it wasn’t long after that he found himself as general manager and a director of Lotus. <P>His next assignment was the Lotus Elan, a car that he designed and named. The new open two seater had retractable headlights, moulded bumpers and a one piece body shell, all unique features for a sports car of that time.
In 1963 Ron got wind of Ford of America looking for an experienced British race car constructor to build a Ford racer capable of winning at Le Mans. Ron gave the news to Colin Chapman and quickly styled a mid-engined sports racer to show Ford. Given the close association between Ford and Lotus at the time, both Chapman and Hickman felt that they were in with a chance. The scales, however, tipped towards Eric Broadley who actually had a Ford powered mid-engined car on the track and was therefore essentially ahead of Lotus in the race for the contract. As we all now know The Lola GT was effectively the surrogate mother of the GT40. If there hadn’t been such a constraint on time the deal could have gone to Lotus but another factor that could have caused a clash of wills is that Colin Chapman would have insisted on the car being called a Lotus-Ford whereas Ford wanted its own brand name. In the end fate intervened and we now have our beloved GT40. CLOSE CALL!
After losing out to Lola, Colin Chapman said that he liked Ron’s design any way and that they should build the car. The final production version was the smaller, lighter and more refined Lotus Europa.
Ron left Lotus at the end of 1967 to start his own designs company but back in 1961 had started work on a small fold-up workbench that could clamp wood and other materials. As all designers know the big break doesn’t come easily and after four years of battling to market his invention Ron signed up a deal with Black & Decker and his workbench became known as the Workmate. To date some 65 million B&D Workmates have been sold world-wide and it’s no secret that Ron has made a great deal of money from his invention. Today he lives with his wife of 43 years, Helen, in a magnificent 20,000 square foot house in Jersey in the Channel Islands.
For the second Workmate prototype Ron used Elan wishbones on either side of the frame in a vertical position. Bet you didn’t know that the Lotus Elan and the B&D Workmate were ‘related’.
In 1994 Ron was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to Industrial Innovation. Not bad for a lad who borrowed 100 pounds from his dad to go north!
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92136
Lotus, Ron Hickman and nearly no GT40
If a well-known sports car manufacturer and two people had it their way in 1963 there wouldn’t have been a GT40.
Here’s the story. It all begins with South African, Ron Hickman, born in 1932 and who grew up in the small town of Greytown in the Natal province.
An accomplished pianist, by age 17 he’d become an Associate of the Trinity College of Music in London, with a Pianoforte Performer’s Diploma. A natural designer, he used to carve car models from wood and to earn pocket money he would draw cars for their owners. After school he joined the Department of Justice and for the next six years was trained in all aspects of the law. Suddenly in 1955 Ron felt he couldn’t handle the excitement of the legal profession, borrowed a 100 pounds from his father and set sail for England, like many young South Africans at the time who wanted experience of the bigger picture in the Northern Hemisphere.
Because of his music background the only company name he knew in London was Boosey & Hawkes, distributors of musical instruments. He stopped by and asked for a job and as luck would have it there was a vacancy in the accounts department. He was asked to report to the appropriately named Miss B Sharp (honest!) and for the time being the young Ron at least had an income.
Then one day a newfound friend told him that there was an advert in a London newspaper, placed by Ford of Great Britain, looking for clay modellers. Ron rushed over to Ford and got the job. After seven months he was offered a job as stylist, no mean achievement for a young man without a formal art qualification!
Apart from working on well-known Ford products including the Anglia there were plans for an Anglia based sports car mainly for the American market, but as Austin-Healey, MG and Triumph were already well established in that market Ford dropped the idea.
A meeting with Lotus boss, Colin Chapman, at the 1956 London Motor Show led to Ron joining Lotus in 1958. His first task was to get the Elite, which had suffered a long gestation period, into production and it wasn’t long after that he found himself as general manager and a director of Lotus. <P>His next assignment was the Lotus Elan, a car that he designed and named. The new open two seater had retractable headlights, moulded bumpers and a one piece body shell, all unique features for a sports car of that time.
In 1963 Ron got wind of Ford of America looking for an experienced British race car constructor to build a Ford racer capable of winning at Le Mans. Ron gave the news to Colin Chapman and quickly styled a mid-engined sports racer to show Ford. Given the close association between Ford and Lotus at the time, both Chapman and Hickman felt that they were in with a chance. The scales, however, tipped towards Eric Broadley who actually had a Ford powered mid-engined car on the track and was therefore essentially ahead of Lotus in the race for the contract. As we all now know The Lola GT was effectively the surrogate mother of the GT40. If there hadn’t been such a constraint on time the deal could have gone to Lotus but another factor that could have caused a clash of wills is that Colin Chapman would have insisted on the car being called a Lotus-Ford whereas Ford wanted its own brand name. In the end fate intervened and we now have our beloved GT40. CLOSE CALL!
After losing out to Lola, Colin Chapman said that he liked Ron’s design any way and that they should build the car. The final production version was the smaller, lighter and more refined Lotus Europa.
Ron left Lotus at the end of 1967 to start his own designs company but back in 1961 had started work on a small fold-up workbench that could clamp wood and other materials. As all designers know the big break doesn’t come easily and after four years of battling to market his invention Ron signed up a deal with Black & Decker and his workbench became known as the Workmate. To date some 65 million B&D Workmates have been sold world-wide and it’s no secret that Ron has made a great deal of money from his invention. Today he lives with his wife of 43 years, Helen, in a magnificent 20,000 square foot house in Jersey in the Channel Islands.
For the second Workmate prototype Ron used Elan wishbones on either side of the frame in a vertical position. Bet you didn’t know that the Lotus Elan and the B&D Workmate were ‘related’.
In 1994 Ron was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to Industrial Innovation. Not bad for a lad who borrowed 100 pounds from his dad to go north!
