1997 Lotus Elise Roadster

Often cited as the model that saved Lotus from oblivion, the Elise was introduced to rave reviews in 1996 and took the Hethel marque squarely back to its roots. With a long tradition of building lightweight, small capacity cars endowed with exceptional handling ability, Lotus conceived the new Elise around a chassis of bonded, extruded aluminium with minimalist fibreglass bodywork styled by the talented Peter Stevens. Powering the Elise was a mid-mounted, tuned version of the 1.8-litre K-series Rover engine, developing a healthy 120bhp in the Series 1 model, and the whole car weighed in at just 720 kilograms. It was no surprise that with these ingredients, the Elise was endowed with truly exceptional handling characteristics, along with superb braking ability and more than ample performance. Creature comforts were minimal, with occupants virtually seated on the floor, while weather protection was almost an afterthought, but the rewards of driving the nimble Elise easily outweighed these considerations and have given it a reputation as one of the purest sports cars on the market.