1971 Lotus Elan Sprint Drophead Coupé 'Ron Hickman'

Ron Hickman grew up in Greytown in Natal province, South Africa and from an early age he was passionate about motor cars, carving models of them in wood and sketching them for their owners. On leaving school, he trained in law for six years in the Department of Justice but retained an ambition to style cars that could not be realised in South Africa. So in 1954, he borrowed £100 from his father and set off for London. He soon found a job with Ford in Dagenham as a clay modeller in the styling department and seven months later he became a stylist on the 105E Anglia.

In 1956, Hickman, whose ambitions lay beyond styling 'worthy' saloons for Ford, 'bumped into' Lotus founder Colin Chapman at the Earls Court Motor Show. As we know, Chapman was a brilliantly gifted engineer whose early competition cars were enjoying success but he was in need of ingenious, energetic characters such as Ron to help get his ambitious new Elite road car into production. Brought in as a production engineer with Lotus in North London, Ron became a general manager and eventually a director, however, the Elite proved to be a false start. It was beautiful to look at and drive but too complicated to build and too frail in service to have the mass appeal Chapman was looking for. Something more practical was needed.

The Elan, introduced in 1962, is arguably the finest of Chapman's road cars and it was Hickman, working alongside John Frayling, who got it into production. The car skilfully blended Grand Prix-inspired engineering finesse – ultra-stiff backbone chassis, all-independent suspension, disc brakes and a lusty twin overhead camshaft engine – with off-the-shelf components from the parts bins of the big manufacturers. This approach saved money and simplified production, the Elan's engine block was borrowed from the Ford Classic and the steering rack from the prosaic Triumph Herald; yet this tiny 1600cc two-seater was so light and perfectly balanced that it could accelerate as quickly as Jaguar's current E-Type.

The Elan, with Hickman's light uni-mould glass-fibre body, brought the thrills of single-seat racing car handling to the road driver who could muster £1,200, or less if he built it from a kit. Its handling is still unsurpassed and the backbone chassis, conceived by Hickman as a temporary measure for developing the car's suspension, formed the basis of every subsequent Lotus of the classic era. As well as devising the car's famous vacuum-operated pop-up headlamps and its distinctive bumpers, Hickman is attributed with having come up with its name – by looking through the ‘E’ section of the dictionary.

Ron left Lotus in 1967 to start his own design company and develop the 'Workmate'. Black & Decker eventually signed an exclusive manufacturing deal in 1972 for his Mark II version, with a lightweight foldable alloy frame so it could be stowed in the boot of a car, but by then Hickman had already sold 14,000 Workmates by mail order. Even with a comparatively low 3% royalty, Hickman soon joined the tax-exile bracket, moving in 1977 to Jersey, where he built a modernist villa with views of St Brelade's Bay and filled it with his own labour-saving gadgets. In 1994 he was honoured with an OBE.

This gorgeous Lagoon Blue Sprint DHC, KXC 67F, was purchased directly by Ron on 27th November 1996 in its currently restored state from the restorer Neil Myers, shipped to Jersey, popped into Ron’s garage and only used occasionally. It must have felt rather special to open his garage doors and see two of his creations, the Elan and the Workmate side by side knowing that both had received worldwide acclaim.

The car was purchased from the Hickman family by our vendor on the 9th March 2021 and, although it remained exactly as it was post-restoration, it was given a very light recommission by Neil Myers upon its return to the UK and prior to joining the Piddington Collection.

In common with the other Elans on offer today, KXC 67F retains its original chassis, body and engine and naturally your inspection of this important Elan is welcomed.

It's accompanied an original Elan tool kit, Certificate of Vehicle Provenance, spare keys, 2 copies of the Elan Sprint Owners Handbook, lots of photographs and acres of interesting correspondence, as you might expect from the man who designed the Elan. A goldmine for Lotus enthusiasts.