Lotus 3-Eleven breaks Hockenheim lap record

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While lap times on the Nürburgring may appear to be the Holy Grail for manufacturers, there are other circuits in Germany where the competition is just as fierce. German magazine 'sport auto' has been compiling lap times at the Hockenheimring short circuit for quite a while now, with almost 700 machines tested to date. The bonkers Lotus 3-Eleven has just gone top of the list, beating hypercars such as Porsche's 918 Spyder and track-focused specials like the Radical SR3 SL. The time of 1:06.2 was set by the magazine's road test editor Christian Gebhardt (no mean racer himself), on a dry track with an ambient temperature of only eight degrees Celsius. Michelin's sticky Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres may have helped, along with the 3-Eleven's 456hp and sub-900kg weight. The video of the lap suggests that a sequential gearbox and increased aerodynamic aids were installed, hence we can deduce it was the ''Race'' instead of manual-equipped ''Street'' version of the car that was used for the record-breaking run.