► Elise sits at #7 in our countdown
► Sweet-handling saviour of Hethel
► James Taylor pays respect
The Car That Saved Lotus did so not just through ingenious chassis design or beguiling styling but by delivering a driving experience worthy of that little yellow badge on the nose. The Elise – any Elise – is a great drive, pure and simple. And pure really is the word; few cars put you more firmly in touch with the road, or chatter away so incessantly about its surface.
There’s the unassisted steering, which you guide with your wrists rather than your elbows; the brake feel through those beautiful extruded aluminium pedals; and the blend of fluid ride quality and pointy handling that only Lotus seems able to pull off properly.
Infamously, things can get a bit tricky on the limit, as is the wont of most short, mid-engined cars, but whether it’s a K-series or a Toyota lump in the back the Elise is involving enough to make a 30mph trundle to the supermarket feel like qualifying at Monaco. And it might have been born 20 years ago, but once you’re ensconced in the chassis, Richard Rackham’s study in aluminium extrusions still looks like the definition of cutting-edge modernity. Like you’re sat inside a MacBook. Good job, really; the Elise will have to soldier on in its current form for a little while yet. Not necessarily a bad thing.
Lotus Elise: the specs
Produced: 1996-present
Price at launch: £18,990:
Price now: From £30,900
Engine: 1796cc 4-cyl
Performance: 5.8sec 0-60mph, 126mph