Lotus 3-Eleven review

We drove the race, because if you’re going to have a silly track car with no windscreen, you may as well have the silliest, trackiest one. The huge cash step-up buys you a power increase from 410bhp to 460bhp and, combined with the 890kg kerbweight, makes the 3-Eleven savagely fast. Relentlessly rapid – seriously, this thing shades supercars and hypercars. And so quick reacting, even for a supercharged motor. The result? It does exactly what your foot demands at exactly the instant it demands it. 

Just maybe more of it than you expected. This isn’t an issue because the handling – entirely predictably – is wonderful. The steering chatters away with detailed feedback and the lack of weight means it feels massless during direction changes. The weight is concentrated over the back axle (the distribution is 36:64) and that, when you really start pushing, means you get a little understeer. But we’re splitting hairs. Biggest surprise? How dexterous the suspension is on-road – it rides well and feels supple.