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 Europa thinking. The front used lightweight pressed steel upper and lower wishbones with a clever coil-over spring-damper arrangement, all connected to the wheels using off-the-shelf front uprights, ball joints and trunnions. The steering gear was solid-mounted rack and pinion using Triumph Herald components. The rear suspension was a heavily modified version of the Chapman strut, originally developed for Chapman's earlier Formula racing car designs and used in the Lotus Elan. In the Europa, the vertical "strut" element pivots on the wheel hub at its lower end and doesn't control wheel camber angle as-in earlier Lotus designs. Wheel location and alignment is