Lotus Elan (M100) History

The M100 Elan (1989–1995) revived the Elan name on a very different car: developed under General Motors ownership, it was the only front-wheel-drive road car Lotus ever built, using an Isuzu-sourced 1.6-litre engine (turbocharged in the SE) on a steel backbone chassis with a fibreglass body.

Critics praised its front-drive handling as exceptional, but it arrived into a recession and was expensive to build; Lotus made roughly 3,800 before halting production. Kia briefly built a derivative in South Korea afterward. It was, in effect, the bridge between the old backbone-chassis Lotuses and the aluminium-chassis Elise that followed.