Lotus 3-Eleven: As Mad As It Gets
PERFORMANCE TOUR – EPISODE I
LOTUS 3-ELEVEN
MAKE ME BAD
Words: Alessandro Marrone
Photography: Lomax
INTRODUCTION
Our partnership with Gino S.P.A. has given us the opportunity to witness as a big-name company focused towards an ever-expanding and varied lot of car guys could be able to transform marketing into something deeply engaging. In the last few months we have published some teaser about our Performance Tour and several e-mails arrived at the office with requests for more information, people who would like to take part during the shooting and more. We can’t blame you, the simple word “performance” encloses a myriad of breath-taking images, scenic roads and the deepest desire that fills the human soul, that of discovery. Discover roads that can make us insomniac for nights and nights, get in touch with cars that have a real soul and keep these profound moments in a limited edition book, supported by the valuable contribution of some of the best photographers in the industry. Auto Class and Gino Luxury & Motorsport feature a column that represents the dreams of any enthusiast, immortalizing in a blink of an eyelash images inspired by our imaginings and offering the chance to live them in first person because desires are made to be fulfilled.
EPISODE I
Have you ever considered how important a name is, a label, a brand? We often take everything for granted and we do not fully appreciate the work done in the beginning when something has been conceived and literally created from scratch. A logo that nowadays symbolizes thousands of words and endless emotions, or a project that involves people and resources. “Less is more,” said Colin Chapman, founder of the Lotus brand, who despite the adventures he faced in his story came to the dawn of 2017, keeping this mantra of pure driving and an intimate relationship between man and machine intact. Colin knew exactly what he wanted – he was a man from a different era – and he wanted his cars to do exactly what they were built for: to go fast. And they had to do it for the exact length of the race, not a lap less, not a lap more. The philosophy of “take away weight to go faster” turned out to be a winning weapon, copied by many, but truly unmatched by anyone, and the way a Lotus driver relate to the car world is diametrically opposed to anyone else. It’s a matter of speed cornering rather than pure speed, we talk about immediacy in chassis and steering wheel feedback and above all that feeling that lets you feel every bit of change on the road surface so that you can best translate these inputs and transform them into what really matters, on road and on track – to drive as if you were one with the car. Now, take these lessons as a dogma on which to base your most rude driving experience and mix them with a 416 horsepower injection – here’s how our Performance Tour begins.
Each corner represents a trampoline from which I slice to the next one. There is no moment of rest and I do not even realize how fast I’m going, throbbing in that sensory brothel made even more absurd by wearing a racing helmet, a four-seat belt and seeing my forehead pointing right over the roadside barriers. In moments like these it is better not to think – I would not be able to do that – nor slowing down the pace, but rather keeping the throttle down as if I should go on inertia, almost as if I wanted to find a way out of this crazy rollercoaster from which as a matter of facts you would not want to get out. We could have taken the 3-Eleven it to the track, but it would have been too obvious and we’d rather let the drivers do that, the real ones. I’ve always had a sensible spot for things on the borders of madness and I thought I would throw a track car (but regularly registered for road use) on a mountain road that leads from Cuneo down to the Ligurian Riviera, crossing a valley immersed in a forest that seems to have come out of “The Lord of the Rings” and the twisting curves of the “Giogo di Toirano”, made even more insidious by a dense fog and a damp road ready to make me regret that challenging the good fortune could lead to severe consequences. But now I’m on the dance floor and so I just have to dance – the Edelbrock supercharger hiss is my only company and I can’t see the staff car behind me anymore. I launch myself into the fog like running away from a flaming house, crossing that pale gray layer that dull the contours of the road and in the meantime it’s as if I could see the helmet moving nervously because of a road surface not quite ideal to the one for which the 3-Eleven was conceived. But it is precisely here that the adrenaline imposes itself as a drug and it explodes in my veins making me get along with it a while later opening the gas the very moment the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 try to have some rest, pointing the nose of the most powerful street legal Lotus ever to the inside of the hairpin. Death or glory as I straighten the Hethel rocket with a less violent movement than I was expecting, then I take the engine revs right where they should be, stretch the right hand on the gear lever and sink my right foot on the throttle once again. I do that all morning and when it’s time to get out and sit by the roadside pulling my helmet, I start laughing as my legs start trembling.
Here’s what’s special about driving on a road like this – you can’t memorize a track of nearly a hundred kilometers, you can only play with your instinct and ride on the razor’s edge. My matte black helmet blends perfectly with the extreme image of the green Lotus with yellow stripes, absolutely the best livery possible. From every angle you look at it, it’s like challenging you, trying in all ways not to make you feel up to the task, but once you jump (literally) on board perfectly secured to the shell seats, everything is transformed. The clutch pedal is surprisingly soft, the gear lever is precise and does not make you miss a shot, the car behaves as you wish and think I’m crazy, but it seems to do everything in order to gain as much confidence as the one you’ll need later once the pace will seem like that of a bucket thrown down a bottomless pit. Just a little pressure on the gas and the feedback confirms immediately how Colin Chapman was damn right. The 416hp coupled to just 925kg of weight give it a power/weight ratio equal to that of an Aventador, with the difference that thanks to the rigidity of the frame, the center of gravity and the chassis’ responsiveness, you will enter through corners at much higher speeds. Motorcyclists say hello, passers-by point at you, and other motorists remain shocked, while I drive a track weapon in a place you will barely see one, a place it will soon start to love. I learn to know it respectfully, and it seems liking me. The conformation of the road and a low traffic emphasize even more the desire to make the engine scream and the 3.5cc 6-cylinder located immediately behind the driver’s seat transmits with unmatched precision all the necessary information so that I can look at the digital display behind the steering wheel sporadically, just to figure out how close I am to the speed limit.
No frills, nothing at all, the 3-Eleven is a steering wheel connected to the transmission shaft and the only optional are the two seats and sinuous lines that cover an anorexic body overlaid by a pronounced front splitter and a huge carbon fiber rear wing, your faithful co-driver and fixed presence in the rearview mirrors. There is both ABS and traction control, which can be partitioned by a switch on the steering column and having about 64% of the weight on the rear axle, you will be able to push the limits a bit further, strong of a virtually non-existent understeer and a grip equal to that of a racing car – like, the stronger you go, the more pressed to the ground you are. Then keep in mind that reaching the ticket entering the motorway or a public parking will be pretty impossible, but this time I did not care about going home with my back to pieces, I would sacrifice my body because driving a track car on a similar road is not something that happens every day. When the first part of the photo shoot comes to an end, I come back at the wheel and take-off again, with greater confidence in the vehicle, but with the awareness that the slightest mistake would end in a very expensive bill. First rule: never tailgate the car in front of you. Instead, stay away from any car and look for roads that are not busy and allow you to put to the test the power of this featherweight with an engine that would make even the most typical supercar in big troubles. Downshift, hit the gas and enter a straight – the V6 screams up to 7,000 rpm and while my grip on the steering wheel becomes more and more secure and prevents the front wheels from tracking the asphalt irregularities, I go back to a path full of curves, so evocative that seems to be painted by Michelangelo himself, not only for the beauty of a landscape that seems to swallow you in a gorge of rocks, as for the diversity of those corners, the width of the roadway itself and because it looks like the personal racing circuit of God. Dreamlike, intimate and with that pinch of perversion, the Lotus 3-Eleven should be treated as a grenade, but at the same time wants to take care of the situation and accompany you to the most beautiful driving miles of your whole life. Thinking that on a track, or on a road that does not seem like the best way to attempt suicide, it takes just 3.4 seconds to snap from 0 to 100 kph and can reach 280 per hour easily. But it’s not as much seconds it takes to get to similar speeds, but the way it does it – and you can do it without bumping your throat, without even having to downshift franticly in order to find the ideal torque curve – ‘cause the 410Nm do their dirty job so well.
You have to accept that your hair won’t like the situation, you’ll sweat like a pig, and be stunned for the following two days, but a car like this makes the world a better place to live. Everyone should have a 3-Eleven in their life, but only 311 people will enjoy this privilege. It makes you feel alive, it makes you realize that everything you’ve been driving so far was nothing but sheet metal with a frigid soul. The relationship you can get with a similar car is worrying, it adds up and will make you risk your life on more than one occasion, but just like when you look out of the top floor balcony and your legs start trembling and you hear that thrill that rises up the whole spine, you go even more into the void. Like when you dream of falling from a flying plane and the internal organs seem to implode – you can’t explain it, but you only know that to feel alive you have to get as near as possible to its opposite.
Gino S.P.A., as authorized Lotus dealer, awaits you in its showroom and offers the possibility of ordering one of the 311 3-Eleven by the end of May, or you can ask about their ready-to-roll models already available. Do you want to feel alive? Then you know what to do.
LOTUS 3-ELEVEN (2017)
Layout – mid-rear engine, rear wheel drive
Engine – 6 cylinder 3.5cc – supercharged
Transmission – 6-speed manual gearbox
Power – 416 hp @ 7.000 rpm
410 Nm @ 3.000-7.000 rpm
Weight – 925 kg
Acceleration – 3,4 sec.
Top Speed – 280 kph
Production: 311 units
Price – from € 117.000
Gino Luxury & Motorsport Price – € 106.000