Indulging their sense of whimsy, Lotus unveiled the new 3-Eleven sports car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed by literally bringing it out of a box. Pitched as an uncompromising, hard-core sports car, the new Lotus 3-Eleven offers a blend of sheer lightness and big power which results in mind-boggling performance.
To be offered in two in two road-going and purely track-focused version, Lotus 3-Eleven is powered by a 3.5 liter supercharged V6 engine out of the Evora tuned to make 450 horsepower and 450 Nm of torque. Given the fact that the car weighs no more than 900 kg (track version), the power-to-weight ratio and therefore raw performance of the thing is off the hook.
Delivered to the rear wheels via a close-ratio six-speed manual gearbox (track version gets a sequential unit) and a Torsen limited-slip differential, that 450 hp enables Lotus 3-Eleven to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in under three-seconds and reach a top speed of 180 mph or 290 km/h, which is hyper car kind of speed.
To make sure the 3-Eleven delivers the legendary handling people expect from Lotus, the engineers have equipped the car with race-spec suspension, AP racing brakes, 18-inch wheels front and 19-inch rear wheels wrapped with high-performance tires.
Production of Lotus 3-Eleven is limited to 311 units and as for the pricing, well, it’s rather expensive at £82,000 for the road and £115,200 for the track version.
