Lotus has released two new videos of the 3-Eleven in full flight, marking the anniversary of its incredibly fast lap times when testing at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
The two 60-second videos offer never-before-seen footage as well as a car’s eye view, while Nordschleife expert and race car driver Marc Basseng blasts along the track during the 3-Eleven’s testing and development phase.
If you follow the action closely, you’ll notice not just the car’s impressive straight-line speed, but also how quick and composed it is when cornering and under braking – mostly thanks to its advanced aerodynamics.
At 240 km/h (150 mph) the Road version of the 3-Eleven produces 150 kg (330 lbs) of downforce, while the Race version with its twin front canards and adjustable rear wing is good for 215 kg (473 lbs).
“The 3-Eleven’s time on the track gave us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate its phenomenal pace,” said Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales during the car’s Nordschleife debut. “It’s the fastest, most focused production road car to ever leave the Lotus factory, and remains true to our values of intelligent and efficient engineering.”
Gale also added that “you don’t need to be a professional racing driver in order to tap its potential, and it will embarrass so-called hypercars with six-figure price tags.” To back that up, the 3-Eleven is known to have lapped the ‘Ring in 7:06.00 last year, which isn’t that far behind what the Porsche 918 Spyder managed with its 6:57.00 time.
With a dry weight of 890 kg (1,962 lbs) and a maximum power of 460 HP (Race version), the Lotus 3-Eleven has a power-to-weight ratio of 517 HP per tone, which translates into a 0-60 mph (96 km/h) sprint time of just 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 290 km/h (180 mph). The Road version weighs 925 kg (2,039 lbs) and produces 410 HP, thus hitting the same 60 mph marker in 3.3 seconds before maxing out at 280 km/h (174 mph).