Lotus Elise

The Lotus Elise is a two-seat, rear mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive roadster that Lotus Cars released in September 1996 after conceiving it in early 1994. Its fibreglass body sits on a bonded extruded aluminium chassis, which keeps weight and production cost low; the first cars weighed about 725 kilograms and reached 60 mph in 5.8 seconds from only 118 bhp. The name honours Elisa Artioli, granddaughter of Romano Artioli, who chaired Lotus and Bugatti at the time. The Elise spawned the Exige and Europa S, Series 1 cars were also assembled at Proton in Malaysia, and production of the Elise ended in 2021 when the Emira replaced it.