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Watch this plucky British roadster trounce a million-dollar hypercar

At a tenth of the price, no less!

Andrew Krok Reviews Editor / Cars
Cars are Andrew's jam, as is strawberry. After spending years as a regular ol' car fanatic, he started working his way through the echelons of the automotive industry, starting out as social-media director of a small European-focused garage outside of Chicago. From there, he moved to the editorial side, penning several written features in Total 911 Magazine before becoming a full-time auto writer, first for a local Chicago outlet and then for CNET Cars.
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Andrew Krok
Hans-Dieter Seufert

If you ask your average car geek for one of the fastest cars on sale today, they will likely answer with one of three, seven-figure hypercars -- the McLaren P1, LaFerrari or Porsche 918 Spyder. But if lap records are any marker, a tiny British two-seater should earn its place among the household names.

The Lotus 3-Eleven is a small, topless track car, packing 456 horsepower from a modified Toyota V-6, along with a price tag of about $130,000 -- significantly cheaper than any hypercar. Yet, when Sport Auto's road test editor Christian Gebhardt took the 3-Eleven to Germany's Hockenheimring, it set the track record, besting Porsche's flagship 918 Spyder.

It claimed top honors by a hair -- a tenth of a second, to be precise -- but its victory is no less impressive. Complicated hybrid systems can elicit impressive performance, but Colin Chapman's old quote still rings true if you want a car that can compete with the best of them: "Simplify, then add lightness."

Next stop: Nürburgring! (Hopefully.)