The Lotus Elise is a two-seat, rear-wheel drive, mid-engined roadster conceived in early 1994 and released in September 1996 by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars. The Elise has a fibreglass body shell atop its bonded extruded aluminium chassis that provides a rigid platform for the suspension, while keeping weight and production costs to a minimum. It is capable of speeds up to 240 km/h (150 mph). The Elise was named after Elisa Artioli, the granddaughter of Romano Artioli who was chairman of Lotus and Bugatti at the time of the car's launch.
Caterham Cars is a British manufacturer of specialist lightweight sports cars established in Caterham, Surrey, with their headquarters in Crawley, Sussex. Their current model, the Caterham 7, originally launched in 1973, is a direct evolution of the Series 3 Lotus Seven designed by Colin Chapman. In the 1990s the company made the Caterham 21, a two-seater soft top alternative to the MGF and Lotus Elise,. A track-only car, the SP/300.R, a joint project with Lola was released for customer testing in 2010 and was scheduled for release in 2013. On 27 April 2011, Team Lotus owner Tony Fernandes announced that he had purchased Caterham. On 2 April 2021, news was leaked that Caterham Cars was acquired outright on 31 March 2021 by VT Holdings, Japanese importer for the Caterham Seven since 2009. As well as being a Caterham importer, VT also imports Lotus cars and Royal Enfield motorcycles into Japan.
The Saab 900 is a mid-sized automobile which was produced by Saab from 1978 until 1998 in two generations. The first generation from 1978 to 1993 is known as the "classic" and the generation from 1994 to 1998 is known as the "new generation".
The TVR Tuscan Speed Six is a sports car which was manufactured by British automobile manufacturer TVR from 1999 to 2006. The name pays homage to the original Tuscan which was introduced in 1967.
Rinspeed Inc. is an Swiss concept car builder and mobility visionary. Since 1991, they have also designed exotic concepts and special vehicles for the CES in Las Vegas, the Geneva Motor Show and other car shows each year, but do not enter into production.
Porsche 997 is the internal designation for the Porsche 911 sports car manufactured and sold by German manufacturer Porsche between 2004 and 2013. Production of the Carrera and Carrera S coupés began in early 2004, all-wheel drive Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S began to be delivered to customers in November 2005, the Turbo and GT3 derivatives went on sale in late 2006 and the GT2 in 2007. In addition to the coupé and cabriolet versions, Targa versions of the Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S were also available, which carry on with the "glass canopy" roof design used since its first application on the 993 until the 991, which reverted to the classic targa top layout used on the early 911 Targas.
The MG ZR is an MG branded "hot hatch" version of the Rover 25 supermini class car, produced by MG Rover at their Longbridge plant in Birmingham from 2001 to 2005. Compared to the Rover 25, the ZR featured a number of styling modifications and performance enhancements, such as updated sports suspension and a less baffled exhaust.
The Volvo 440 and 460 are versions of a small family car produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo between 1987 and 1996. The 440 was introduced in 1987, whilst the 460 followed in 1989. They were built at the NedCar factory in Born, the Netherlands. The 440 was a five-door front wheel drive hatchback and the 460 a saloon.
The MG Midget is a small two-seater sports car produced by MG from 1961 to 1979. It revived a name that had been used on earlier models such as the MG M-type, MG D-type, MG J-type and MG T-type.
The Bristol Fighter is a sports car produced by Bristol Cars in small numbers from 2004 until the company suspended manufacturing in 2011. It is generally classed as a supercar.
The Aston Martin V8 Vantage is a British grand tourer, a higher performance version of the Aston Martin V8. It was hailed at its 1977 introduction as "Britain's First Supercar" for its 170 mph (270 km/h) top speed. Its engine was shared with the Lagonda, but it used high-performance camshafts, increased compression ratio, larger inlet valves and bigger carburettors mounted on new manifolds for increased output. Straight-line performance was the best of the day, with acceleration from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 5.3 seconds, one-tenth of a second quicker than the Ferrari Daytona.
Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH & Co. KG is an automobile manufacturing company based in Buchloe, in the Ostallgäu district of Bavaria, Germany that develops and sells high-performance versions of BMW and Mini cars.
VXR is the branding for the high performance trim specification, used since 2004 for models in many of Vauxhall's car range in the United Kingdom. Holden has also used the VXR badge for some of its high-performance cars such as the Astra VXR and Insignia VXR, and currently for the Commodore VXR.
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national and regional Porsche Carrera Cup and GT3 Cup Challenge series, as well as the international Porsche Supercup supporting the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 is a sport pickup truck that was produced by American automaker Dodge in limited numbers. It was introduced at the January 2002 North American International Auto Show, but was not put into production until 2004.
The Clio Renault Sport is a hot hatch produced since 1998 by Renault Sport, the high-performance division of French automaker Renault. It is based on the Clio supermini.
The Ruf RGT is a sports car made by Ruf Automobile of Germany.
The Viper engine is a high-performance naturally-aspirated pushrod 2 valves-per-cylinder 90° V10 engine built by Chrysler for use in the vehicle of the same name.
Volkswagen R is the brand used by the German auto manufacturer Volkswagen to indicate a sport or high performance model. An "R" badge is placed on the grille, front fenders and trunk of R-model vehicles to indicate the vehicle's trim level.
The Mazda MX-5 (NA) is the first generation of the Mazda MX-5 manufactured from 1989 to 1997. Inspired by the post-war era British sports cars, the MX-5 rejuvenated interest in roadsters after the demise of cars such as the MG B and Triumph Spitfire. Since its debut, the MX-5 has won numerous automotive awards and has become the world's best selling sports car.
