VIDEO: Lotus 3-Eleven faster than Porsche 918 at Hockenheim
Small Brit proves its hypercar-humbling potential by setting lap record at German race circuitLotus’ new 3-Eleven has claimed the lap record for the fastest production car at the Hockenheim Short Circuit in Germany, beating the current lap record holder, Porsche’s 918 Spyder.
The lap time, set in the hands of German car magazine Sport Auto’s Christian Gebhardt, was a tenth faster than the million-dollar Porsche.
The time set by the 3-Eleven was also a second quicker than a Gumpert Apollo and more than two seconds faster around the Short Circuit than the time recorded by the German magazine in a Ferrari 488 GTB.
Setting a time of 1:06.2, the record was achieved on optional, but still road-legal, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres in at an ambient temperature of just 8C.
The rest of the 3-Eleven was claimed to be standard.
That means the windscreen-less, open-cockpit Lotus was powered by a mid-mounted supercharged Toyota 3.5-litre V6 that comes with either 343kW for the track-biased version and 308kW for the road version.
Weighing in at 890kg, the fastest 3-Eleven smashes the 0-97km/h (0-60mph) time in 2.9 seconds and has a top speed around 290km/h -- but that wasn’t the car used to set the record in Germany.
Instead, Sport Auto used the less powerful, road-legal version that hits 97km/h in 3.3 seconds and tops out at 280km/h.
For the record, it’s thought the road car used the race-spec 3-Eleven’s Xtrac six-speed sequential gearbox, instead of the road car’s standard six-speed ‘box.
The 3-Eleven is set to become one of Australia’s most affordable supercars -- if it can clear notoriously tricky ADR homologation hurdles, that is.
Once passed, pricing has still to be decided.
In the UK, the 3-Eleven costs around $150,000 for the road version and around $200,000 for the race-spec 3-Eleven.
Our cars are likely to cost more to help the local importer recoup the costs of homologation.
Later on this year, Lotus is rumoured to be planning an assault on the car industry’s favourite proving ground-cum-race circuit, the Nurburgring.
Once again the British sports car maker hopes to set record,s this time by beating the Porsche 918 Spyder’s already incredible lap time of 6:57.
Lotus plans to build 311 3-Elevens over two years.
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