Watch the Lotus 3-Eleven Attack the Nurburgring

Stephen Elmer
by Stephen Elmer

Lotus is letting the public in on its latest testing session at the Nürburgring Nordschleife with its new 3-Eleven.

A pair of videos showing Marc Basseng, professional race car driver and Nordschleife expert, piloting the 3-Eleven have been released to show how fast this car is. The first video shows the 3-Eleven running unimpeded along the straights and twisting corners of the famous German track. Video number two shows Basseng dealing with traffic on a public lapping day, passing multiple cars quickly.

The 3-Eleven is all about being lightweight, allowing the Race version to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds while 0 to 100 mph happens in less than six seconds. Dry weight for the Race version of the 3-Eleven clocks in at a scant 1962 pounds (890 kg), while power output is 460 hp. The Road version is slightly heavier at 2039 pounds (925 kg) and a little less powerful with 410 hp going through the wheels.

SEE ALSO: Lotus Evora 400 Gets Even Lighter with New Options

“The 3-Eleven’s time on the track gave us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate its phenomenal pace,” said Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus plc. “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. However, 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. It remains the perfect template for how we will approach the design of all Lotus sports cars in the future.”

Discuss this story at our Lotus Forum

Stephen Elmer
Stephen Elmer

Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>

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