Tom Karen: The Invisible Man Who Designed Fun Into Britain

Tom Karen spent his career at Ogle Design - the studio that would tackle absolutely anything. Need a car to kickstart Turkey's automotive industry? Sorted. Want a sleek GT for a princess? No problem. Fancy creating the most impractical orange wedge ever built, or a bike for teenagers? Karen was your man.

Born in Vienna, Karen’s family fled the Nazi regime and settled in Britain. He was an aeronautical engineer by training who found himself working for a small, brilliant design consultancy founded by a man named David Ogle. Then, in 1962, tragedy struck. Ogle was killed in a car crash. Tom Karen, his talented number two, suddenly found himself in charge of the whole operation.

Building a Nation's Car

One of Karen's first major projects was rather serious: designing Turkey's first mass-produced car. The Anadol A1 arrived in 1966, a tough fibreglass saloon built to survive Turkey's demanding roads and put an entire country on wheels. It became a source of genuine national pride - not bad for a car designed in a Hertfordshire studio.

The Anadol succeeded because it understood what Turkey actually needed rather than attempting to build a national Rolls-Royce. It was clever precisely because it was unpretentious - engineered for reality rather than prestige.

Having accomplished this bit of nation-building, Karen's career promptly took a sharp turn into the gloriously absurd.

A Car for the Establishment

Back in Britain, he designed his masterpiece. The 1968 Reliant Scimitar GTE was a car that created a whole new genre. It was a sleek, muscular "shooting brake" that blended the style of a coupe with the practicality of an estate. Powered by a brawny Ford V6, the Scimitar was fast, practical, and effortlessly cool. It was a car for the discerning country set, and its most famous owner, Princess Anne, cemented its image as a piece of sophisticated, no-nonsense machinery.

The Teenage Riot

With a sensible car for a princess done, Karen then designed two of the most brilliantly irresponsible objects of the 1970s. First, the Bond Bug, a lurid orange, wedge-shaped three-wheeler with a lift-up canopy instead of doors. It was a piece of pure, joyful madness, a car that served no practical purpose other than to be fun. 

Raleigh Chopper was next. This was a bicycle that looked like a motorcycle from a free-rider dream. It was heavy, uncomfortable, and terrible at going up hills, but with its high-rise handlebars and long saddle, it was the single coolest thing a British schoolboy could own.

A Solution for the Masses

Then, in 1973, Karen's studio designed the famous Reliant Robin. This was a masterpiece of a different kind: a miracle of cost-cutting, a three-wheeled plastic car designed to exploit a tax loophole. It was wobbly, slow, and became a national joke, a symbol of cheerful, plucky failure. The same man whose name was on the blueprints for a royal sports car was also responsible for the car driven by Del Boy's mate, Rodney.

Tom Karen was the ultimate design problem-solver. His portfolio is a magnificent, baffling mess of the sublime, the sensible, and the utterly ridiculous. He was a quiet professional who ran a design studio, not a personal brand. He would take on any challenge, whether it was a royal GT, a national car for Turkey, a three-wheeled joke, or a child's toy. He died in 2022, leaving behind a legacy not of a single, coherent style, but of incredible, joyful, and often mad creativity.