The philosophy: “Performance through light weight”. As ever there are detractors of the Lotus Elise just as there are detractors for any type of affordable sports car.

The bottom line here though, is that although there may be other sports cars with an equally modest price tag, very few of them can live up to the standards of the Lotus Elise. Released in September of 1996, the Lotus Elise came in at a positively anorexic 720 kg, living up to the Lotus motto of “Performance through light weight”.

» Read more: Design Concept: Sleek, Very Sporty and Affordable; the Car: Lotus Elise