Lotus 3-Eleven

The Lotus 3-Eleven is the most powerful production car to wear a Lotus badge ever. It takes all that power and puts it in a 2,035 lb. (1,958 lb. in the racing version) package. Add this to the 410 horsepower (460 horsepower in the race version) and you get a car that is a rocket when pushed.

Don’t expect creature comforts like a windshield or roof. Those things are just overrated in the mind of Lotus enthusiasts. This is a car that looses just about every pound possible to accomplish its performance. It is true to the brand’s vision of adding lightness, but this time they added power as well.

The road car will launch from 0-60 mph in a scant 3.3 seconds and can hit a top speed of 174 mph. Not bad, but the race version takes this to the next level. It manages a 0-60 mph time of just 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 180 mph. Even more impressive is the 0-100 mph time of 6 seconds flat.

Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Lotus:

“The Lotus 3-Eleven is a game-changing car, not only in terms of what has come before it from within our own rich heritage of sports cars, but also in terms of anything else comparable brought to market by any other manufacturer. Extreme, focused and phenomenal are all words that have been used to describe the 3-Eleven. This is a car that exists within an extremely rarified performance envelope – it offers both hypercar performance and handling. Nothing else provides a sensory overload of this nature, and all packaged under £100,000.”

Only 311 examples will be produced worldwide, so you won’t likely see too many at the grocery store. The biggest problem for us with the Lotus is that it won’t be brought to the United States. At least not through dealerships, but a few may make it this way eventually via the grey market.

Still the Lotus 3-Eleven looks like quite a fun car. Not something that you will drive daily, but a very fun weekend and track day car.

The 3-Eleven starts at £68,750 (plus VAT) for the road car and that goes to £97,083 (plus VAT) for the race car. For those of us in the USA that is the equivalent of $99,106 for the road car and $139,930 for the race car (based on the rate of exchange as of the time of this article).

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