Lotus is looking to draw in the huge crowds at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed with the unveiling of a new track-focused sports car. Rumoured to be dubbed the 3-Eleven, it’s just been teased with a glimpse into the car’s holding crate in the paddock before the official reveal tomorrow.
The 3-Eleven is a reinvention of the highly-focused 2-Eleven that we tested back in 2007. But as you can see from the teaser image, it’s a completely new model with dramatic new body design just visible behind the crate door. But from what we’ve gathered this will be a whole different animal from that car, with a dramatic performance and price upgrade.
Like the previous car, it’ll be a super-lightweight model for track days and race usage, and it isn’t likely to stray too far from the 2-Eleven’s 670kg kerbweight. The 3-Eleven expected to be revealed in non-road legal form initially, with owners having to fork out extra to convert the car to make it roadworthy. The old car was just under £40,000, but with upgrades the 3-Eleven is expected to be significantly more expensive, but stay under the £100,000 barrier.
But Lotus is keen to justify the extra cost increase, and it’s likely to become one of the fastest cars around for below that price barrier. The 2-Eleven sported 252bhp from a 1.8-litre supercharged engine, but our best guess is a larger powerplant, likely the 2.5-litre V6 from the Evora, will debut and take power over 350bhp.
We’ll have all the details of the Norfolk-based firm’s track monster at the full reveal tomorrow.
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