Marking the anniversary of its landmark lap times when testing at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, two new videos of the Lotus 3-Eleven in full flight have been released, allowing enthusiasts to experience the car’s visceral, white-knuckle ride around the “Green Hell” for themselves.
Offering never-seen-before views, the 60 second videos provide a car’s eye view of the fascinating track, as it’s piloted by Nordschleife expert and professional racer Marc Basseng, during its Nürburgring testing and development programme.
The videos not only shows the car’s blistering straight-line speed, but also how fast and composed it is when cornering, thanks it to its advanced aerodynamics. At 240 km/h the Road version produces 150 kg of downforce, while Race version with its twin front canards and adjustable rear wing produces 215 kg.
Since the car’s appearance at the Nürburgring, deliveries of the hypercar-humbling Lotus have begun with the first lucky owners finding out what this road-legal racer is truly capable of.
With lightweight carbon composite bodywork as standard, the Lotus 3-Eleven has a dry weight of 890 kg and maximum power of 460 hp (Race version). This provides an enviable power-to-weight ratio of 517 hp per tonne, and the car is capable of sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.9 seconds ahead of a maximum speed of 290 km/h. The Road version with a dry weight of 925 kg and a maximum power of 410 hp reaches 100km/h in 3.3 seconds before reaching a top speed of 280 km/h.
The video also shows how driver Marc Basseng had to deal with other cars also on the Nordschleife circuit during the evening public sessions. In what was its first turn of a wheel outside of Lotus’ Hethel HQ, Marc was one of three different drivers helping to develop the car – each one with individual areas of expertise and focusing on aerodynamics, engine calibration, chassis tuning and suspension geometry.
