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 Cars likely rival for Lotus if its plans go through, has also turned to contractors for parts of the all-electric Roadster. However, Tesla bought the chassis for their 2,500 Roadsters from Lotus because of the heavy weight of the batteries in an EV and Lotus's widely known low weight and sharp handling characteristics. While only 10% of the parts of the Tesla Roadster were shared with the Lotus Elise, Lotus was responsible for approximately 40% of the overall content of the car. Lotus Cars were awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise for contribution to International Trade, one of 85 companies receiving