Lotus 3-Eleven

The Lotus 3-Eleven is a 450 horsepower 1,980 pound rocket of a car. With that power to weight ratio, it is guaranteed to be very fast. To put this to a test the English sports car maker took their latest creation to the Nurburgring.

The legendary track no longer keeps official lap times, but that doesn’t stop manufactures from revealing the times that they are seeing. The 3-Eleven was at the track for two weeks and in that time the car was able to do a 7 minute 6 second lap time, but based on computer data Lotus Engineers believe that it could do even better.

Just how much better? Based on the fastest lap times, they believe that a 7 minute flat time is possible with some tweaks to the car and some very good driving. When you figure that the Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1 managed to just best that time with their advanced hybrid systems and you see just how fast the 3-Eleven is.

The sports car can launch from 0-60 mph in less than 3 seconds and has a top speed of 175 mph. The starting price for the road legal version is about $125,000 (£82,000) and the race only version starts at about $146,000 (£96,000).

This short video contains footage of the lightweight Lotus taking on the famed Nurburgring. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show a full lap, but it does show part of a lap and contains some good scenes of the car’s details as well as the sound.

Trouble watching this video? Go to the original YouTube video.