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 a dry road could outclass any other non-Lotus road car." Although performance results achieved by testers are affected by many variables (e.g. differential ratio, weather/road conditions, gross vehicle weight, DHC vs. FHC, etc.) the following tables provide an overview of the car's capabilities. The following excerpt from Robinshaw & Ross summarizes Elan performance for each Series: "Zero to 60 Times" and "Car Folio" report: A few additional figures for the Sprint: The table below provides a simplified summary of Elan updates and changes associated with each Series. It is notable that the fundamentals of the car changed very little during