The Lotus 3-Eleven has been teased prior to its impending world debut at the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Dubbed by the carmaker as the “the fastest road vehicle” to have ever come out of Hethel, the 3-Eleven will be, as expected, a hardcore, track-oriented machine that’s based on the template laid down by its predecessor, the Lotus 2-Eleven, which made its debut back in 2007.
From the sole teaser shot, we can gather that the new car will look the part of the road-racer it’s destined to be with an aggressive front splitter coupled to massive air intakes. According to Autocar UK, the Lotus 3-Eleven will utilise the same suspension setup and extruded aluminium monocoque chassis from the Exige S.
Where it differs, though, will be the addition of a pair of “composite seats, race-style downforce from a specially-developed aerodynamic pack, an abbreviated windscreen to cut the frontal area and a built-in roll cage.” Under the bonnet, the 3-Eleven will powered by an uprated version of the supercharged 3.5 litre V6 engine from the Exige S. Power is expected to be ramped up to 420 hp.
The car is touted to weigh less than 800 kg, and with said horsepower figure, should provide the car with a power-to-weight ratio of more than 500 bhp/tonne. Lotus CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, is confident that the car will reach 100 km/h from nought in under three seconds and power on to a top speed in excess of 290 km/h.
Aside from its straight-line abilities, the Lotus 3-Eleven is rumoured to be one of the few road-legal cars that will lap the fabled Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in a smidgen over seven minutes – placing it within the ranks of the Porsche 918 Spyder and Nissan GT-R Nismo. Word on the vine is that the car will go on sale next year following its Goodwood debut with a price tag of £70,000 (RM414,768).
GALLERY: Lotus Exige S Automatic in Malaysia
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What 3-eleven?
Looking at the way how Proton handle this company, soon it will be a subsidiary of a PN17 company selling Lotus model in 7-Eleven.
As long as Toyota engine inside, sure good RV.
For a second, I thought I saw “7-Eleven”!!!
Ioma butthurt basher. Too envy to see it on par with spyder and GT-R nismo. Why no p2 or toyoda names mentioned? They are too crappy to begin with.
rather than u..talk only..NATO…
What difference does it make in term of weight/performance by putting a proper dashboard with nice tough screen and controllers? its a 400K car for god sake. Additional 5kg to 10kg in weight, would it drop the acceleration by 1sec from 0-100km? What make people buy this car over the others for that price tag? i would rather sacrifice a few sec of acceleration drop and negligible handling experience by getting a way far better exterior and interior car that i can proud of for daily use, for the same price tag.. just my opinion.
First of all this car is not meant for daily use. Reducing weight might not make big difference on the straight line speed but definitely make big difference in term of handling at the corner. You might lose 0.5 to 1 sec per lap with unnecessary touch screen and bits. 0.5 to 1 sec is really a big deal for lap timming.