Lotus M90

The Lotus M90, sometimes called the Lotus X100, was a concept car that Lotus developed using many Toyota parts. It was the last project overseen by the founder Colin Chapman before his death in 1982. Oliver Winterbottom was brought back to Lotus in 1981 to design a car that would complement the Excel and the Esprit, bring some profitability to the range and revive the Elan name. His first coupe designs got a cool response from the board, the project stalled when Chapman died, and it restarted under David Wickens of British Car Auctions, who took a controlling interest in the company. Redesigned as a convertible, it was given the go ahead in 1984 as a single prototype, with a front-mounted 1.6-litre four-cylinder Toyota engine of 123 bhp, a Toyota five-speed gearbox, the suspension setup of the Lotus Excel and a fibreglass body with a two-piece roof. Because most engineers were working on the front-wheel-drive Elan the prototype was warehoused, and in 1998 it was auctioned and shipped to a private collector in the United States.