There are few sports car manufacturers as iconic as Lotus. Founded in 1948 by the legendary Colin Chapman, the Lotus marque became famous for its lightweight and tight-handling sports and racing cars, which squeezed every available horsepower out of relatively small engines.

The cars have always been popular with genuine enthusiasts, those who take as much pleasure from tinkering with the engine as they do from driving. That’s just as well. The Lotus Elite was voted the most fragile classic ever and the old joke goes that Lotus is really an acronym for Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious.

Partnerships made in automotive heaven

However, for those of us who prefer to spend time driving instead of diagnosing misfires, there is a way to enjoy that legendary Lotus performance in solid and reliable surroundings. Automotive partnerships can be risky affairs, and it is important to choose the right partners, as in any industry. But Lotus had a habit of getting it right more often than wrong, as the following examples show.

Lotus Cortina is Where it All Began

The Cortina was the original everyman car. The family saloon or estate was ubiquitous on the roads of Middle England throughout the 1960s and 70s, a consistent best-seller that did all that one could expect of it. Like anything with a blue oval, Cortinas are much beloved on the classic scene, but let’s be honest, there’s never been anything remotely exotic or exciting about them.

Except…. Slipping the Lotus twin cam under the bonnet, replacing the panels with lightweight alternatives and uprating the suspension turned the humble ‘Tina into some sort of monster. Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart – all the top racing drivers of the era drove a Lotus Cortina and it achieved massive rally success.

Today, Lotus Cortina Mk 1s and Mk 2s are changing hands for six-figure sums and are among the most desirable sports cars of the 1960s.

Talbot Sunbeam Lotus was a silk purse from a sow’s ear

Unlike the much-loved Cortina, the Chrysler Sunbeam struggled to get noticed over cars like the Ford Fiesta and Fiat 127 in the late 1970s and is all but forgotten today. However. Lotus saw something in the unloved supermini and transformed it into what is surely the most underrated car ever to bear the Lotus badge.

It won the RAC rally in 1980 and was only toppled by the all-conquering Audi Quattro the following year.

Lotus Carlton – so fast there was almost a law against it

Lotus’s 1990s partnership was with General Motors – or more specifically, with Vauxhall. The Carlton was a larger car than the Cortina or Sunbeam, an executive cruiser aimed at the BMW 5-series market.

The 3.6 litre twin-turbo engine could propel the car to 180mph, and when one was stolen and used in crimes, police said “we haven’t been able to get near the thing.” Both police and the conservative press called for it to be banned.

It remained in production for two years, and we have never seen the like of it since.