Tom Karen OBE b.1926

IT IS HARD to imagine that any designer can claim more touchpoints with British children of the 1970s and ’80s than the late, great Tom Karen Whether it was the unstable bright orange three-wheeler for which he is most famed, the bicycle that bewitched a generation despite its genital-crushing tendencies, or a

Ken Block b.1967

KEN BLOCK SHOULDN’T really have struck quite the chord that he did with British classic car fans With a lairy clothing brand, skateboarding and extreme sports background, video game appearances, a purpose-built showcar and in-yer-face approach to, well, everything,he seemedanunlikely show-stealer when he first arrived at Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2010. Yet, in West Sussex, as everywhere it seems, this motoring renaissance man – a serious rally driver, don’t forget – won over all-comers with his passion, enthusiasm andvolcanicskillbehindthewheel.Alsofamed in the UK for being part of the controversial, un-airedTopGearCenotaphstunt,hewaswell- simple self-build marble game, this Austrian émigré bestrode those decades like a colossus

Born in Vienna, he came to the UK when his family fled Austria in 1939 and studied as an aeronautical engineer, then joining Ford and Ogle (he returned to assume the helm after David Ogle’s death in 1962 and stayed until it was sold in 1999) before Hotpoint and Philips During his time/s at Ogle, he masterminded everything from the Ogle SX1000 to a tranche of Reliants, most famously the Scimitar, the Turkish Anadol A1, motorcycles, coaches, caravans and much more

Always seeking to use science to further motoring and safety, some of Karen’s ingenious concepts included the Ogle Triplex glassbacks (Karen used to regale people with tales of Prince Philip borrowing the GTS and refusing to return it) and the Sotheby Special, all of which were bursting with cutting-edge advances both in design and construction Appealing to broader culture were products such as the Bush TR130 radio, the Raleigh Chopper bicycle and the Marble Run game And, of course, based on a Bond Bug, Luke Skywalker’s XP-34 Landspeeder

Although his heyday may have passed, Karen never slowed down and never stopped working Only a few months ago he was still communicating regularly with members of the Octane staff, excitedly making plans for interviews about projects such as the Ogle Triplexcarsandalsokeentopromotehissecret small-car project that he was touting as the successor to the Bond Bug

Generous to a fault – except with the credit, as some of his former Ogle colleagues used to joke–Tomwasadichotomyofaman,asdriven as he could be self-effacing, as confident as he was in need of reassurance, but he had a rare sense of the zeitgeist and how to tap into it.