Roy Axe


Royden Axe was a British car designer, widely known for his design work on the Chrysler Alpine, Hillman Avenger/Plymouth Cricket, Chrysler Horizon, and Rover 800 — as well his affable character and ability to realize his designs fully — for radiating enthusiasm about cars.
He received a Lifetime Award from the Coventry Lanchester Polytech Faculty of Art and Design, in 1985, and an Honorary Degree from University of Central England at Birmingham in 1995.

Early life and career

Axe was born in Scunthorpe and attended Scunthorpe Grammar School.
Having begun his career in 1959 with the Rootes Group, Axe joined the company on a three week apprenticeship, and did not leave until 1976. At Rootes he progressed first to chief stylist and then to Design Director — at age 29. As Rootes became part of Chrysler Europe in 1966 along with Simca, Axe led the styling efforts on almost all of the Chrysler/Rootes/Simca products of the early to mid-1970s, including the Hillman Avenger/Plymouth Cricket, Simca 1308/Chrysler Alpine and Chrysler Horizon — the latter two which won 1976 and 1978 European Car of the Year, respectively. Following Chrysler Europe's collapse in 1977, Axe moved to Detroit to head Chrysler's styling studios in the United States, where he worked on the original Chrysler minivans as well as the 1981–1983 Chrysler Imperial.
In 1982, Axe returned to the United Kingdom, joining British Leyland, still under development. Axe was responsible for building a new styling studio at their Canley, Coventry plant; the former opened in 1982. He also recruited a new team. Early projects from the new studio included Project XX and the MG EX-E concept car. Axe retired from Rover at age 55.
In 1991, Axe became head of the Warwick-based vehicle design consultancy Design Research Associates, which resulted from a management buyout of Rover's design studio in 1986. DRA was acquired by Arup in 1999.

Examples of Axe's car designs

Axe was also involved in the design of the 1984 Austin Montego. 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 Austin Maestro hatchback had been delayed by several years.

Personal life

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