OUR BEST'90s CARS

The nineties were a golden age for car bynamics, engineering and design. Here are our team's top picks of the era

- STEVE WALKER

HAD Lotus not come up with the Elise back in 1996, the company may not still be in existence today. That's how crucial the little two-seater roadster was and it's no exaggeration to say the company could do with a similar injection of product-development genius today.

The Norfolk firm may have pivoted towards heavy and complex premium EVs in recent years under its new and complicated ownership structure, but the Elise was old-school Lotus purity fashioned in fibreglass.

The ethos behind the car was true to the vision of Lotus founder Colin Chapman: simplify, then add lightness. It had an aluminium chassis that was the perfect rigid base for its suspension, while the body helped keep the weight below 750kg.