Winterbottom Oliver

Oliver spent his whole career designing cars, and, for a short period, boats.

He started his working life as an engineering apprentice at Jaguar Cars before spending a further five years there as a staff designer. In 1971 he joined Lotus Cars as the Design Manager. He was responsible for the styling, body engineering and aerodynamics of their vehicles until 1975 when he transferred to Colin Chapman’s luxury boat company. A short period of self employment saw the start of the TVR Tasmin range of sports cars. He then moved north to join the company through to the launch of the Tasmin Convertible and 2 + 2. In 1980 he returned to Lotus to lead the joint sports car project with Lotus and Toyota. After the completion of a prototype running vehicle he left for a short period in Detroit, USA. Working for General Motors he was a project manager on two low volume vehicles for them. Returning to the UK he rejoined Lotus where he held a number of senior management positions in engineering and vehicle safety work. He resigned in 1998 and set up a consultancy, Norfolk Automotive Limited. His clients included a number of companies in China where he retired in 2009. Throughout his career he maintained a “hands on” approach to both the design and the development of a wide range of products.