You are probably familiar with Christian Gebhardt of Sport Auto magazine as we often feature his exploits here. The race car driver and road test editor has done pulled off something with the new Lotus 3-Eleven that has attracted the attention of the company, because even they didn’t except it.

What Gebhardt has done is lap the Hockenheimring short circuit in 1 minute 06.2 seconds. That puts Lotus 3-Eleven sports car above the likes of Porsche 918 Spyder, Ferrari 458, Corvette ZR1 and Gumpert Apollo in the rankings. Lotus also likes to boast that the car was on road tires and the weather was less than perfect, which makes the whole effort more impressive.

Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus plc said, “Christian set a fabulous lap in less than ideal conditions. We knew from the outset that we have created a simply phenomenal car that is capable of great things, and this lap record proves that beyond doubt. This is the ultimate embodiment of the Lotus design philosophy; it’s a beautifully engineered machine that doesn’t carry one ounce of excess weight. With 460hp on tap and race car handling at your disposal, this car is the ultimate giant killer”.