The Lotus 3-Eleven is the most powerful road car to wear a Lotus badge and Hethel's quickest ever road car – reaching 60mph in under three seconds and 100mph in six.
The 3-Eleven possesses a purity of the driving experience and the benchmark handling for which all Lotus cars are renowned, enabling a lap of the challenging Hethel circuit to be completed in 1 minute 19.5 seconds for the Race version.
Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus, said: 'This is a car that exists within an extremely rarified performance envelope – it offers both hypercar performance and handling. Nothing else provides a sensory overload of this nature, and all packaged under £100,000.'
With the standard lightweight carbon composite bodywork, the Lotus 3-Eleven has a dry weight of 890kg and maximum power of 460hp from the 3.5-litre, supercharged V6 for the Race version with a power-to-weight ratio of 517hp per tonne, 0 to 60mph in 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 180mph. The 410hp Road version, with a dry weight of 925kg, reaches 60mph in 3.3 seconds before reaching a top speed of 174mph.
The Race car has a competition spec six-speed sequential transmission, the Road version a close-ratio six-speed manual box.
The 3-Eleven will soon be entering production with deliveries of cars to customers from March. The 3-Eleven will be exclusive with total production limited to 311 cars.
Prices start at £82,500 on the road for the Road version and £116,500 for the Race version.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here