HETHEL, England -- The Lotus 2-Eleven is $80,000 of race car so singular in purpose and flawless in execution that it can make your grandmother look like Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.
Almost.
I discovered this at the Lotus test track when I nearly grazed a cone taking a corner at 70 mph, then stood on the brakes with the next turn approaching at 120. Any other car would have punished me with a skid and a spin. The 2-Eleven shrugged it off, its traction control and anti-lock brakes making me look good as I took the turn at 50.
Simply put, the 2-Eleven is one of the best track cars money can buy. Loud, fast and smooth, it'll hang with all but the priciest German and Italian supercars without the nightmarish maintenance bills.
Lotus drew deep from its racing heritage with the 2-Eleven, named for the gorgeous Lotus 11 of the late 1950s. Its obsession with saving weight reaches insane levels here, and the 2-Eleven weighs a scant 1,477 pounds. The bodywork, made from monofilament fiberglass, accounts for just 80.
The car doesn't have anything that isn't absolutely necessary to make it accelerate, turn or stop. Leather upholstery? Stereo? Headlights? Pfft. The 2-Eleven doesn't even have doors. It is designed for one thing only -- circumnavigating a track in as little time as possible. It's not even street-legal in the U.S., where it will arrive later this year with a $79,500 price tag.
A mere 1.8 liters is able to crank out 252 horsepower with the aid of a supercharger that pumps the engine with air. High-powered cars in this class often have engines with twice the volume.
Photo: Bruce GainRace-spec hardware includes Ohlins coil-over shocks with remote reservoirs, AP Racing brakes with Goodridge stainless steel lines and forged alloy wheels with Yokohama tires. The suspension offers so much adjustment that Lotus includes directions for setting it up.
Glorious quantities of power flow from a 1.8-liter supercharged Toyota engine with variable valve timing. It's good for 252 horsepower and a zero-to-60 time of 3.8 seconds. It's quicker than a Porsche 911 GT3 RS and a tick or two slower than a Ferrari F430. The 2-Eleven can keep up through the quarter mile (12.2 seconds), but the two cars easily outrun the 2-Eleven's top speed of 150 mph.
The bare-aluminum interior sports an SCCA-spec roll cage, six-point safety harness and a fire extinguisher.
There's no windshield to speak of, so a full-face helmet is mandatory. Don't bother looking for paddle shifters behind the steering wheel, either. You change the 2-Eleven's six gears with a lever between the seats, just as God and Colin Chapman intended. Lotus says paddle shifters add dead weight and needless complication.
The company also downplays the level of technology in the 2-Eleven, insisting that it focused more on aerodynamics and engine design than algorithms and sensors. Don't let that fool you.
Adjustable traction control limits slip from 7 percent to 100 percent (at which point traction control is turned off entirely, and you're on your own). It's never intrusive, and with the anti-lock brakes, you can confidently push the 2-Eleven to its limits, assuming you're good enough.
If you aren't, the 2-Eleven will let you look like you are.
