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Lotus 3-Eleven may be the quickest track weapon you can buy

Germany's Sport Auto magazine routinely takes world-beating supercars around the short circuit at the Hockenheimring: Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis... the works. But the top of the leaderboard has now been claimed by something altogether smaller and less powerful in the form of the new Lotus 3-Eleven. The most extreme expression of the Elise/Exige platform to date, the 3-Eleven is a track-focused machine of the highest caliber. At its heart sits a relatively humble 3.5-liter supercharged V6, tuned to produce 460 horsepower. But with composite body panels and a low curb weight, it rockets to 60 in under 3.0 seconds flat, and more poignantly laps the company's own test track ten seconds ahead of the Evora 400. Now it's clocked a lap around Hockenheim – sometimes host of the German Grand Prix – in just 1:06.2, just edging out the previous record held by a Porsche 918 Spyder. It also bests the Gumpert Apollo, and the similarly track-focused Radical SR3 SL... not to mention everything else Sport Auto has ever taken to the track. What's even more impressive is that the magazine's road test editor Christian Gebhardt completed the lap on stock rubber and on a cold track that didn't get any warmer than 46 degrees Fahrenheit. Just imagine what it'd do on even semi-slicks and a warm track surface. Related Video: 'HYPERCAR-KILLING' LOTUS 3-ELEVEN SETS HOCKENHEIMRING LAP RECORD - Lotus 3-Eleven raises the bar by establishing a new "sport auto" production car lap record around Hockenheimring - Lotus 3-Eleven now heads the lap time list which features exotic hyper cars and track-focused supercars from some of the world's most prestigious manufacturers - Lap record set by "sport auto" magazine's top road tester Christian Gebhardt The Lotus 3-Eleven, the quickest series production car to come from Lotus' Hethel Headquarters, has set the fastest lap time ever recorded by the leading and highly-respected German car magazine, "sport auto". Driven by Christian Gebhardt, a highly accomplished driver and Road Test Editor for "sport auto", the Lotus 3-Eleven lapped the Hockenheimring short Circuit in an incredible 1 minute 06.2 seconds. This time was even more impressive considering that the 3-Eleven was on standard road tyres and the fastest lap was completed in less than perfect weather, where temperatures did not get higher than 8 degrees Celsius. Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus plc said, "Christian set a fabulous lap in less than ideal conditions.

Lotus Evija to go for Nurburgring EV record

No matter how many times Nurburgring records are made or broken, they still stand as an important automotive measuring stick – at least in a marketing sense. Granted, there are different Nurburgring lengths even on the Nordschleife, and then it all comes down to whether the vehicle is a production car, or completely experimental, or electric, or. Â… Anyway, numbers are numbers, and some numbers are smaller than others, and the Nurburgring is a legendary place to go fast. One of the future plans for Lotus is to bring its upcoming Evija electric hypercar to the ‘Schleife and see if it can go faster than the NIO EP9. PistonHeadsÂ’ article on the Evija featured some interesting tidbits from Louis Kerr, principal platform engineer at Lotus. Kerr said the Evija should be “comfortably quicker” than the NIO EP9 at the Nordschleife, meaning they are gunning for a production EV lap time of way under 6:45. The EvijaÂ’s 70kWh battery pack has reportedly been optimized to provide 2MW peak flow for a sustained seven-minute period, which is practically tailored for a record Ring lap. After that, the batteries would heat up too much to provide peak power. The swappable battery pack can also take “ultra-fast” charging of up to 80kW thanks to active cooling of its li-ion cells manufactured by Samsung. The relatively handy swap-ability of the battery pack is done for the sake of future-proofing, as it means the 70kWh capacity can be upgraded by owners when technology progresses further. Kerr also said that the Evija should be able to hit 62mph from zero in less than the 3 seconds advertised so far, and the targeted 3-second figure should be treated as a “worst case scenario”. The Evija could thus also be able to reach 300 km/h (186 mph) even faster than 9 seconds, as stated. Lotus CEO Phil Popham also said Lotus would be able to build up to 130 units of the Evija, and that several contracts have already been signed with future buyers. News Source: PistonHeads Green Lotus Electric Supercars

Lotus Exige Sport 410 Quick Spin Review | An unobtainable gem previews an American future

HETHEL, England — You can get the measure of a car brand by the environment in which its products are built. The narrow, bumpy, hedge-lined lanes of eastern England explain a lot about the way a Lotus goes. The character of a company's chief speaks to the brand's intentions as well. Jean-Marc Gales has been portrayed unflatteringly as a Eurocrat bean counter, but his approach has been to strip weight and cost out of the product to the benefit of performance on both track and bottom line, defining brand attributes that Chinese money can hopefully bring to a wider audience. He drives fast, thinks quickly and acts without hesitation. You sense he likes people who do the same, and the speed with which Autoblog posted the story announcing the new Exige Sport 410 is something he commented upon in flattering terms. Despite the fact that it'll never appear on American dealer lots, Gales made us very welcome at the factory to drive it. A quick update on where the Exige is at since it was last seen on American shores in 2011. Though it's still based around what's fundamentally the same extruded and bonded aluminum tub as every other Elise and Exige of the past 20 years, it's gained pounds, cylinders and performance to the point where it shows circuit pace that'll have 911 GT3 owners watching their mirrors. Since going from a 1.8-liter four-cylinder to the Evora-derived 3.5-liter supercharged V6, the Exige has evolved into a proper hot-rod, some way removed from its dainty roots and punching harder with each iteration. And there have been a few. Currently you can buy a Sport 350 or Cup 430 with the uprated, intercooled Evora engine and 430 horsepower, this new Sport 410 related to the latter and benefiting from many of its upgrades but tuned to be more road compliant. And a little cheaper. Unlike the Cup, you can also have it as a roadster, which, in an extreme example of the famed "add lightness" policy, basically equates to removing the roof panel. It's now arguably too much for the local roads, punching hard in angry bursts of acceleration between corners rather than dancing through them. With no power assistance to the steering and fat, grippy Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s, an Exige is a surprisingly physical car to drive, bearing in mind it weighs less than 2,500 pounds. A test track built on runways that once hosted U.S. Air Force B-24 Liberators is a better place to appreciate the Exige's talents.