Lotus Elise

A near 30 per cent weight increase is not a figure anyone at Hethel will have taken lightly during the Elise’s 25 years of production.

But while the 191kg gain from S1 to last-of-the-line Final Edition (still less than 1000kg) will have Chapman disciples shaking their heads, the evolutionary journey explains where the gains have come from, not least in the introduction of a supercharged engine, which produces double the output of the original K-series, and a six-speed gearbox.

Yet despite the kilo gain, the Elise remains one of the greatest driver’s cars of the modern era. Its diminutive footprint is perfectly aligned to UK roads and traffic conditions, just as it was in 1996. There have been lighter variants, such as the 852kg S3 Club Racer and the 726kg S2 Sport 135, but the Elise is one of the few cars that can add a few kilos and still remain true to its core values.

S1 118bhp 731kg 164bhp/ton S2 120bhp 860kg 142bhp/ton S3 240 237bhp 922kg 261bhp/ton