Lotus 3-Eleven: Almost The Fastest On The Nürburgring, But...
According to Lotus' CEO, the 3-Eleven is not only the fastest car the company has ever built, but also one of the fastest around a lap of the Nürburgring. If we are to believe the press release that landed on my desk this morning, the sports car managed to lap the prestigious German track in 7 minutes and 6 seconds, which is fast enough to place it in the production vehicle top ten (it was 2 seconds faster than the Nissan GT-R Nismo, as an example).
It's easy to see how the car could do a lap that fast: it is powered by a Toyota-sourced V6 developing 450 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque. Since it weighs less than 890 kilos, it can get from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 3 seconds and has a top speed of 280 km/h.
There is only one little problem with this lap time: it never actually happened. It was extrapolated using the best sector times of various laps. There were other cars on the track at the time, preventing Lotus from completing a lap at full speed.
If we are to believe the test-driver, the car has more than enough potential to achieve such a time (and possibly even get under the 7-minute mark), however we are not sure that the ''lap record'' will be accepted...
