Lotus Elan F1 supercar, reportedly said that his only disappointment with the McLaren F1 was that he could not give it the perfect steering of the Lotus Elan. In 2004, "Sports Car International" named the Elan number six on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1960s. The original version of the car was designed by Ron Hickman who also designed the first Lotus Europa as part of Lotus' GT40 project bid and made his fortune having designed the Black & Decker Workmate. Because of its successful design and rigorous attention to cost control on the body, chassis, engine and the
Lotus Elan used in a number of Ford and Lotus production and racing models. Lotus reported different power outputs for the Twin Cam engine during the production of the Elan. Prior to the release of the Sprint the following outputs were reported in the Workshop Manual: Lotus marketing material from the S3 period quoted the SE variant at 115 BHP, noting high lift cams, carburetor re-jetting and a four branch exhaust. The final version of the Workshop Manual revised these numbers, as shown in the following tables. The increased power of the Sprint engine was primarily due to larger inlet valves, so