To celebrate the British International Motor Show this year we picked our 100 best British cars. Check out our selection to help you choose your favourite home-grown motor.
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18 Lotus Elise (page 18 of 25)
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The car that saved the company (again): a back-to-basics sportster, launched in 1996, built around a new aluminium tub structure rather than the traditional backbone chassis, with clamshell glass fibre body mouldings. The Rover K-Series 1.8 provided 118bhp, and with just 723kg to shift the Elise's performance was explosive. Part-funded by GM, for whom Lotus built the Vauxhall/Opel-badged VX220/Speedster spin-off, and partly by new owner Proton, the Elise has not been hugely profitable, but it has put Lotus back on the map. Now with a Toyota engine, the Elise and its coupe counterpart the Exige continue to be much loved; the 'more comfy' new Europa on the same underpinnings has not taken off, however.
