New car news

13 November 2008 - 12:00

One track mind

In a slight departure from creating track cars that you can drive on the road, Lotus has unveiled a track car that you can’t drive on the road.

This is the 2-Eleven GT4 Supersport, Lotus’s entrant into next year’s GT4 Sports Light race series that’ll compete against the KTM X-Bow and the Donkervoort D8.

The X-Bows ran away with the series last year, securing a one-two-three, but the 2-Eleven should prove a tougher prospect in 2009. Based on the hardly-slow supercharged 2-Eleven, it gets a power boost from 252bhp to 266bhp thanks to a new exhaust system, remapped ECU and increased boost.

More significantly, there’s a new six-speed sequential gearbox allowing for proper flat shifts, and a limited slip diff. Oh, and that full roll cage and new aero kit, which you probably spotted already.

And, just so no one mistake it for a standard 2-Eleven transporting some light scaffolding, there are carbon fibre race seats with six-point harnesses… and a removable wheel.

If you fancy being part of the race action, you’d better be quick: Lotus is producing a mere 10 cars for the start of the 2009 race series, at a cast of around £80,000 a piece.

Which, in terms of pounds-per-pound (if you see what we mean), makes the 2-Eleven pretty damn expensive. In terms of fastness-per-pound, however, it’s a bally bargain…