Royden Axe (September 1937 – 5 October 2010) was a British car designer.

Early life and career

Axe was born in Scunthorpe and attended

Scunthorpe Grammar School The St Lawrence Academy (formerly High Ridge School) is a coeducational Church of England secondary school with academy status, in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. The Academy teaches GCSEs and BTECs, and has specialisms in sports and ...

(now St Lawrence Academy). Axe began his career in 1959 with the

Rootes Group The Rootes Group or Rootes Motors Limited was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. Run from London's West End, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dea ...

where he progressed first to chief stylist and then to design director. Rootes became part of

Chrysler Europe Chrysler Europe was the American automotive company Chrysler's operations in Europe from 1967 through 1978. It was formed from the merger of the French Simca, British Rootes and Spanish Barreiros companies. In 1978, Chrysler divested these ...

in 1966. Axe led the styling efforts on almost all of the Chrysler/Rootes/Simca products of the early to mid-1970s; the car models involved included the Simca 1308/Chrysler Alpine and

Chrysler Horizon The Chrysler Horizon is a compact hatchback that was designed by Chrysler Europe and was produced from 1978 to 1987 under the Chrysler, Simca and Talbot nameplates. The successor to both the Simca 1100 and Hillman Avenger, the Horizon adopte ...

which won

European Car of the Year The European Car of the Year ("ECOTY") award is an international Car of the Year award established in 1964, by a collective of automobile magazines from different countries in Europe. The current organising companies of the award are ''Auto'' (Ita ...

in 1976 and 1978, respectively. Following Chrysler Europe's collapse in 1977, Axe moved to Detroit to head Chrysler's styling studios in the United States. In 1982, Axe returned to the United Kingdom, joining

British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...

(BL) where he took over as styling director from

David Bache David Ernest Bache (14 June 1925 – 26 November 1994) was a British automobile designer. For much of his career he worked with Rover. Early life Bache was born in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Aston Villa and England footballer Joe Bache who w ...

(who had been sacked from BL owing to disagreements with the company boss

Harold Musgrove Harold John Musgrove (born Birmingham, 1930) was the chairman of British Leyland's Austin Rover division between 1982–1986 and worked in several roles for the British National Health Service from 1991–2001. British Leyland Harold Musgrove ha ...

over the still under development

Austin Maestro The Austin Maestro is a five-door hatchback small family car (and two-door van derivative) that was produced from 1982 to 1987 by British Leyland, and from 1988 until 1994 by Rover Group, as a replacement for the Morris Marina and Austin Alleg ...

), and was responsible for the building of a new styling studio at their

Canley Canley is a suburban neighbourhood located in CV4, south-west Coventry, England. Canley became part of Coventry as a result of successive encroachment of the latter's boundaries between 1928 and 1932, having historically been part of the St ...

, Coventry plant; the former opened in 1982. He also recruited a new team. Early projects from the new studio included ''Project XX'' (the

Rover 800 The Rover 800 series is an executive car (E-segment in Europe) range manufactured by the Austin Rover Group subsidiary of British Leyland, and its successor the Rover Group from 1986 to 1999. It was also marketed as the Sterling in the United St ...

) and the

MG EX-E The MG EX-E is a concept car that was produced by MG and presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1985. The EX-E was a mid-engined sports car inspired by the Ferrari 308 and designed by Roy Axe and Gerry McGovern. The car's drivetrain and cha ...

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

. In 1991, Axe became head of the

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

-based vehicle design consultancy Design Research Associates (DRA), which resulted from a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

of Rover's design studio in 1986. DRA was acquired by Arup in 1999.

Examples of Axe's car designs

1967 Sunbeam Rapier and Sunbeam Alpine fastback coupés * 1970

Hillman Avenger The Hillman Avenger is a rear-wheel drive small family car originally manufactured by the former Rootes division of Chrysler Europe from 1970–1978, badged from 1976 onward as the Chrysler Avenger. Between 1979 and 1981 it was manufactured by ...

/ Plymouth Cricket * 1975

Chrysler Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

(Talbot) * 1976

Hillman Hunter Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

* 1977 Iran Khodro Paykan facelift * 1979

(Talbot) * 1980

Talbot Tagora The Talbot Tagora is an executive car developed by Chrysler Europe and produced by Peugeot Société Anonyme (PSA). The Tagora was marketed under the Talbot marque after PSA took over Chrysler's European operations in 1979. PSA presented the f ...

* 1985

concept car 1990 Rover 214SLi pre-facelift (10025019705)

* 1986

Rover CCV The Rover CCV is a concept car shown by the British car company Austin Rover Group at the Turin Motor Show 1986 under the Rover marque. The CCV name stands for Coupé Concept Vehicle. Designed by Roy Axe, it followed similar design themes of the ...

concept car * 1986

(developed in conjunction with the

Honda Legend :''Sections of this article are translated from Japanese Wikipedia''. The Honda Legend is a series of V6-engined executive cars/mid-size luxury sedans produced by Honda since 1985 which currently serves as its flagship vehicle. It is larger tha ...

) * 1989

Rover 200 The Rover 200 Series, and later the Rover 25, are a series of small family cars that were produced by British manufacturer Rover from 1984 until 2005. There have been three distinct generations of the Rover 200. The first generation was a four ...

400 __NOTOC__ Year 400 ( CD) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus (or, less frequently, year 11 ...

(R8) * 1994 Bentley Java concept car Axe was also involved in the design of the 1984

Austin Montego The Austin Montego is a British family car that was produced by British Leyland from 1984 until 1988, and then by Rover Group from 1988 until 1995. The Montego was the replacement for both the rear-wheel drive Morris Ital and the front-wheel dri ...

. The design had been initiated prior to his joining BL, but he was able to make last-minute changes to it shortly before it entered production. Cosmetic changes – which aimed to improve the by-then dated design – included black trim along the car's waist line. Due to BL's financial problems, the release of the Montego, and the related David Bache-designed

hatchback had been delayed by several years.

Personal life

After selling DRA to Arup in 1999, Axe moved to Florida. He died on 5 October 2010 after battling cancer for two years.

Bibliography

* ''A Life in Style'', Autobiography of Roy Axe,

References

;Footnotes ;Sources * British automobile designers 1937 births 2010 deaths People from Scunthorpe Deaths from cancer in Florida {{UK-engineer-stub