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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 team out of Le Mans, full driver list published

We can scratch off one more car from the list for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Lotus T129 LMP1 car has been dropped from the entry list of the 82nd running of the historic race, with organizers citing "a lack of preparation" as the reason. On a more positive note, the list of 168 drivers in 56 vehicles has been officially published for the June 14 race.
Like the Lotus team currently in Formula One, the Lotus T129 uses the iconic British brand's name and colors but is actually built by a separate company. It previously ran a Lola chassis in the LMP2-class (pictured above). The Le Mans organizers claim the car will likely be on display during the 24-hour race, but it won't make it's competition debut until the World Endurance Championship round at the Circuit of the Americas in September. The T129 is being replaced by an Oreca 03 chassis with Nissan power in the LMP2 class, entered by Millennium Racing.
The Lotus' retirement came as the teams had to send in the names of the three drivers nominated to race each car. This year there are racers from 26 countries with the most coming from France (39), Britain (29), the US (17) and Italy (15). The latest tally of entries breaks down to 9 LMP1s, 19 LMP2s, 9 LM GTE Pros, 18 LM GTE Ams and the Nissan ZEOD RC as the experimental Garage 56 entry.

Lotus Eletre opens a new front in electric SUVs

Ladies and gentlemen, the new era of Lotus as an EV maker begins with this, the Eletre. It takes elements we've seen on the Evija battery-electric hypercar and Emira ICE sports car, wraps them in a larger package, jacks them up, and throws in a lot of new tech for the brand and the market. Let's start with size, which is the easy bit. The Eletre is 201 inches long on a 118.9-inch wheelbase, about 79 inches wide, and 64 inches high. Every one of those dimensions puts the Lotus within a couple of inches of the Aston Martin DBX: the EV being a little longer, with a slightly shorter wheelbase, a little wider, and a roof a couple of inches lower. For us, the side view most closely represents the form we had in mind based on recent spy shots. The front is intense, the yellow of the hero car making the greatest contrast with the polygonal void below. The lights above the leading edge are DRLs and turn signals, the main beams are recessed into that void, hugging the upper edge. The rear, with its Lotus script and full-width light bar fading into triangular intakes along the sides, clearly comes from the sports cars. It can glow in four colors depending on what it needs to communicate, and forms a connection with the light bar across the instrument panel. The SUV proportions and black roof are still playing tricks with our eyes, though; we can't help feeling the Eletre carries its bulk up high. The wheels are an optional set of 23-inchers that hide optional 10-piston (ten!) calipers gripping ceramic composite rotors. Lotus isn't ready to divulge specific battery capacity and motor outputs between those wheels. All we're told is the pack is more than 100 kWh and output starts at 600 horsepower. Every Eletre is all-wheel-drive, with a motor on each axle. The 800-volt electrical architecture can handle up to 350-kW fast-charging, 20 minutes at a station at that charge rate restoring 248 WLTP miles of the Eletre's estimated 373-mile range in WLTP testing. EPA numbers will come eventually. Lotus says the hauler will get to 62 miles per hour in under 3 seconds and hit a top speed of 161 mph. The electronic side mirror housings each contain three cameras, one camera for the rear views, one to help stitch a 360-degree overhead view, and one to help enable self-driving. The charge port is on the front left fender, but keen eyes might notice more shutlines atop the front wheel arches.