The M100 Elan was retired after not even three years, its lack of Lotus’s usual handling sparkle (due to FWD) and the simultaneous arrival of the Mazda MX-5 having resulted in just 3855 sales. Some still mourned its loss, but they meant the 162bhp SE, not the 130bhp base car, in which the Isuzu four lacked a turbo. So obscure was this (139 sold) that our first drive was instead a post-mortem. “You can get as much driver involvement from a good video game,” we concluded. “That whirring is Colin Chapman turning in his grave.”