Lotus 3-Eleven Kills The Porsche 918

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Lotus 3-Eleven (Credit: Lotus)

Forget hypercars like the Porsche 918, because the Lotus 3-Eleven can spank them all sideways. The smaller and less powerful car has one thing on its side: lightness. That time-tested British formula was put to the test by Sport Auto, and the result is wonderful.

» Related: Lotus Adds Lightness With The Evora Sport 410

One of the publication’s test drivers took the 3-Eleven for an aggressive spin around Hockenheimring, a legendary short circuit in Germany. The car threw down with a best lap time of just 1:06.2, setting a new record. That’s bad news for Porsche, because the 918 was the previous record holder for the track.

In fact, no other car Sport Auto has taken to Hockenheimring has performed so well, including the Radical SR3 SL and Gumpert Apollo, to name a few. The Lotus was also riding on stock tires and the track was cold, so it would’ve done even better in warm weather with better rubber.

Check out the video for yourself.

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Jim O’Hara

You’re actually comparing this go-cart with a supercharger and fiberglass body kit to a Porsche 918 Spyder? Seriously? A few comparison questions:

- How many airbags does the car have for driver safety?
- Is the interior really just bare metal?
- Are the unfinished pop-rivets on the windscreen standard or optional?
- Is the fixed mount seat with six point racing harness legal for road use?
- What’s the total range with the single digit sized gas tank?
- How about a video showing ingress and egress without damaging the paint?
- When the track is a bit longer and straighter like the real world (Nurburging), how does it stand up to the 918?
- Do the windshield wipers work? Oh wait, like most non-street legal race cars, there are none.

Yeah, real head to head comparison.

Next up lets compare the Traxxas XO-1 radio controlled car to the 918! I bet it doesn’t stand a chance!

Good grief.
Sean Buckman

Being fast and performing well are two different things. I noticed a fairly large amount of slipping and over steering pretty much during the entire lap. Being that the track was cold and on stock tires could have caused this, also the car is so small it probably just doesn’t stick as well. At any rate, that is one heck of a car.