For those of you that missed this story in its various parts on earlier posts, here is a (consolidated) great series of recollections from Andre Loubser (Andre40)
Andre has kindly edited this text for me for hopeful inclusion in the Club Lotus magazine despite being busy with a factory move... Many thanks Andre....it is much appreciated, and keep the great recollections coming....
An interesting tale from South Africa
If a well-known sports car manufacturer and two people had it their way in 1963 there wouldn’t have been a Ford 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 modelers. 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. 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 racecar constructor to build a Ford racer capable of winning at Le Mans. Ron gave the news to Colin Chapman and they 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 MK V1 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 the Ford 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. I had also heard that John Frayling designed the Europa and it’s possible that he continued with the design inspired by Ron. No doubt some ex-Lotus employee will know the true story. Ron left Lotus at the end of 1967 to start his own design company but back in 1961 had also 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 worldwide 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. 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!
After having communicated with Ron by phone I finally met up with him at the 2000 Goodwood Revival meeting and then went on to Jersey to stay with him and Helen for three most pleasnt days. Ron also allowed me to drive his vintage V16 Cadillac! I took a photo of Ron in his study with the drawing of the proposed Lotus-Ford mounted on the wall. The family resemblance to the eventual Europa is clearly evident. I also took photos of the three prototype Workmates one of which had Lotus Elan wishbones mounted on either side in a vertical position. Not many people know that the Lotus Elan and the Black & Decker Workmate are ‘related’!
I worked for Porsche in Stuttgart from mid-1962 to mid-1964 and in 1963 I was put in charge of their direct factory sales division that delivered cars to VIPs. Several 904s were processed through my department including one to the Stirling Moss Automobile Racing Team (SMART). Striling’s three mechanics brothers Ed and Bud Rossler and Piet van Asperen were South African s and this led to close association with the team which in turn led to my joining the Stirling Moss Paint-a-Car System in London. I spent four years with the company and assisted with the setting up of 19 branches in the UK and one each in Brussels and Paris. I then spent a further year in Wimbledon on the Enfield Electric car project and the car was in fact styled by John Frayling.
But by 1968 I wanted to return to South Africa to set up the Autospray system. Stirling was interested in a deal with me but then discovered that his Paint-a-Car associates had him tied up world-wide. I had met with Mike Hailwood and a deal with him made a great deal of sense as he owned a house in Durban and had many friends in SA.
In January, 1969 we got the Mike Hailwood Autospray System on the road from our head office in central Johannesburg and within three years had set up 17 centres and six affiliated companies across the country, including our own paint factory. At the time polyurethane paint was in its infancy but I was keen to pursue this avenue as I thought the paint had a great future. I had met a paint chemist who shared my view and he was eventually made MD of our paint factory. Our new paint had a gloss never seen before and was rock hard.
The only problem was when it was compounded, buffed and polished it would lose about 20% of its gloss. The only solution was 100% dust free spray booths. Our demands were so far above the capabilities of the existing booths that we bought an engineering works that gave us the opportunity to develop our own units and filter systems. In the end we got it right but not after several near nervous breakdowns!
In the 1960s Chris Parry, at a young age, headed up Firestone's racing tyre depot near Heathrow. Chris was very close to Colin Chapman and Jimmy Clark and when Jimmy was killed at Hockenheim Chris was badly affected and decided to emigrate to South Africa where he joined the Lotus distributor in Johannesburg. I met up with Chris and eventually he approached me for a job at Autospray.
I figured out that Chris wasn't someone you employed so we formed Autospray Developments for Chris to run and this company became the central buying office for the group. A performance car and accessory show was organised to coincide with the 1971 SA Grand Prix and Chris, always a good marketing and ideas man, came up with a good idea. He had a friend who owned a mustard colour Lotus Europa and why don't we spray it in the Gold Leaf colours for the show?
I immediately agreed and the spray job was out of this world. The Europa took centre stage and was surrounded by Elans in various colours.
One morning Colin Chapman popped into the show and when his eyes fell on the Europa they nearly popped out. He asked about the paint and finish and said that he had just spent a fortune upgrading the paintshop at Hethel and here we were in South Africa ahead of him in the paint race! As I gathered that Colin Chapman wasn't one to dish out compliments too freely we were quite chuffed by the admission!
Andre Loubser
Constantia, South Afri
[ March 10, 2003: Message edited by: Neil Strenge ]
Andre has kindly edited this text for me for hopeful inclusion in the Club Lotus magazine despite being busy with a factory move... Many thanks Andre....it is much appreciated, and keep the great recollections coming....
An interesting tale from South Africa
If a well-known sports car manufacturer and two people had it their way in 1963 there wouldn’t have been a Ford 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 modelers. 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. 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 racecar constructor to build a Ford racer capable of winning at Le Mans. Ron gave the news to Colin Chapman and they 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 MK V1 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 the Ford 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. I had also heard that John Frayling designed the Europa and it’s possible that he continued with the design inspired by Ron. No doubt some ex-Lotus employee will know the true story. Ron left Lotus at the end of 1967 to start his own design company but back in 1961 had also 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 worldwide 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. 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!
After having communicated with Ron by phone I finally met up with him at the 2000 Goodwood Revival meeting and then went on to Jersey to stay with him and Helen for three most pleasnt days. Ron also allowed me to drive his vintage V16 Cadillac! I took a photo of Ron in his study with the drawing of the proposed Lotus-Ford mounted on the wall. The family resemblance to the eventual Europa is clearly evident. I also took photos of the three prototype Workmates one of which had Lotus Elan wishbones mounted on either side in a vertical position. Not many people know that the Lotus Elan and the Black & Decker Workmate are ‘related’!
I worked for Porsche in Stuttgart from mid-1962 to mid-1964 and in 1963 I was put in charge of their direct factory sales division that delivered cars to VIPs. Several 904s were processed through my department including one to the Stirling Moss Automobile Racing Team (SMART). Striling’s three mechanics brothers Ed and Bud Rossler and Piet van Asperen were South African s and this led to close association with the team which in turn led to my joining the Stirling Moss Paint-a-Car System in London. I spent four years with the company and assisted with the setting up of 19 branches in the UK and one each in Brussels and Paris. I then spent a further year in Wimbledon on the Enfield Electric car project and the car was in fact styled by John Frayling.
But by 1968 I wanted to return to South Africa to set up the Autospray system. Stirling was interested in a deal with me but then discovered that his Paint-a-Car associates had him tied up world-wide. I had met with Mike Hailwood and a deal with him made a great deal of sense as he owned a house in Durban and had many friends in SA.
In January, 1969 we got the Mike Hailwood Autospray System on the road from our head office in central Johannesburg and within three years had set up 17 centres and six affiliated companies across the country, including our own paint factory. At the time polyurethane paint was in its infancy but I was keen to pursue this avenue as I thought the paint had a great future. I had met a paint chemist who shared my view and he was eventually made MD of our paint factory. Our new paint had a gloss never seen before and was rock hard.
The only problem was when it was compounded, buffed and polished it would lose about 20% of its gloss. The only solution was 100% dust free spray booths. Our demands were so far above the capabilities of the existing booths that we bought an engineering works that gave us the opportunity to develop our own units and filter systems. In the end we got it right but not after several near nervous breakdowns!
In the 1960s Chris Parry, at a young age, headed up Firestone's racing tyre depot near Heathrow. Chris was very close to Colin Chapman and Jimmy Clark and when Jimmy was killed at Hockenheim Chris was badly affected and decided to emigrate to South Africa where he joined the Lotus distributor in Johannesburg. I met up with Chris and eventually he approached me for a job at Autospray.
I figured out that Chris wasn't someone you employed so we formed Autospray Developments for Chris to run and this company became the central buying office for the group. A performance car and accessory show was organised to coincide with the 1971 SA Grand Prix and Chris, always a good marketing and ideas man, came up with a good idea. He had a friend who owned a mustard colour Lotus Europa and why don't we spray it in the Gold Leaf colours for the show?
I immediately agreed and the spray job was out of this world. The Europa took centre stage and was surrounded by Elans in various colours.
One morning Colin Chapman popped into the show and when his eyes fell on the Europa they nearly popped out. He asked about the paint and finish and said that he had just spent a fortune upgrading the paintshop at Hethel and here we were in South Africa ahead of him in the paint race! As I gathered that Colin Chapman wasn't one to dish out compliments too freely we were quite chuffed by the admission!
Andre Loubser
Constantia, South Afri
[ March 10, 2003: Message edited by: Neil Strenge ]
