The Lotus Elise saga began in 1997 when the British sports-car maker introduced a completely new, light-weight vehicle on the market and changed the company’s future.
Collin Chapman always believed that a sports car had to be light, and he relentlessly tried to achieve minimum weight for its products. Its legacy was carried over other cars, and the Elise was the proof that he was right. Richard Rackham, head of Lotus’s engineering, introduced aluminum extrusion and bonding in the automotive building process. He combined the two methods and resulted in a very rigid 68 kg (150 lbs) chassis.

The bodywork was made out of composite materials, which led to a very light vehicle, half the weight of a family sedan. At the front, it featured a sharp nose with two extraction vents on the upper panel. Its round headlights were pushed outward on the fenders while the turn-signals were on the inner side. From its sides, the car sported air-intakes for the engine, which was placed behind the cabin. Since the two seats were mounted close together, the carmaker could make a narrower greenhouse and safety arch.

Lotus installed a 1.8-liter Rover K-Series engine and paired it with a five-speed manual gearbox. Despite the 118 hp provided, the Elise managed to get a 0 to 62 mph (0-100 kph) time of 5.9 seconds, which was already close to the supercar area. Later on, the carmaker introduced more powerful versions, which made the agile Elise even faster on the straight lines.