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 of the Elan followed a entirely traditional approach for sports cars of the time - front engine, rear wheel drive - its design included novel ideas that found their way into the designs of other manufacturers' vehicles. Examples include: This generation of the two-seater Elan was famously driven by the character Emma Peel in the 1960s British television series "The Avengers". The reference to a car accident in the Beatles song A Day in the Life was apocryphally based on Tara Browne's fatal accident in his Lotus Elan. Famous Lotus Elan owners and drivers, past & present, include: Despite the