Lotus Spills the Beans on the 3-Eleven Track Car

Lotus 2-Eleven (Credit: © Lotus)

Lotus has certainly seen better days, but under the careful watch of its new CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, the company has been steadily improving. It has even gone so far as to release a few new models, including the Elise S Cup and the Evora 400. Now, thanks to a report from Auto, Motor und Sport, we have learned that Lotus will reveal a successor to the 2-Eleven.

Lotus will base this new car, which Gales says will carry the name 3-Eleven, upon the existing Exige. However, there will be a few tweaks here and there to help stiffen up the Exige’s chassis, and to drop this track-ready rig’s weight to only 1,962 pounds – 630 pounds less than the Exige S. Add some sticky rubber to the equation, and this should be plenty to make the 3-Eleven a downright awesome track car.

According to the report, the 3-Eleven will make use of a V-6 engine that will crank out a whopping 420 PS (414 horsepower. Given the limited resources that Lotus has to work with, this engine is likely a modified version of the Toyota-sourced 3.5-liter V-6 powering the Exige. In the Exige S, this engine puts out 350 PS (345 horsepower), so getting it to 420 PS shouldn’t require too much work.

Gales continued to spill the beans to Auto, Motor und Sport by claiming that the 3-Eleven will top out between 285 and 290 km/h (177 to 180 mph), and that he expects a Nurburgring time of around 7 minutes and 9 seconds. What’s more, though the 3-Eleven is setup for track use, it is also eligible for on-road use with certain modifications. Though Gales did not go into what modifications it would need to be street legal, I figure things like regulation mirrors, a windshield, and street tires are the likely necessities.

The Lotus 3-Eleven will make itself officially known at the 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show, which will kick off on September 17, 2015.