Don't forget their involvement with the original Tesla Roadster. Lotus was Teslas original contract manufacturer for their cars, back in the day, and helped out Tesla with some engineering and design resources.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/lotus-position

Yes, the founder of Lotus, Colin Chapmann, had this egineering philosophy regarding racing cars: "Every part's weight is something I have to carry. If a part doesn't even exist, it doesn't have any weight." (Paraphrased by me.)

The biography "Colin Chapman The man and his cars" by Jerry Crombac is the got to read for this topic. BTW., Crombac is a legend in sports journalism in his own right.

and at a time nobody even did care for aerodynamics of a cars underbelly [its ventro-basal anatomy, so to speak] Chapman aimed to optimize on a level known only from constructing air-planes. shark-skin'ish foils, if not mistaken, they too were among the first testing on racing cars

> famously featured in the opening sequence of "The Prisoner" TV series.

Not just featuring in the opening sequence, but indeed symbolic of the entire show. A quirky, agile stand-out from the crowd that represents freedom and individuality, yet in the end is still imprisoned to follow the same roads as everybody else.