The 2-Eleven is the most lithe, agile Lotus in years. Its steering geometry is basically the same as the Elise’s but is noticeably easier at town speeds. It’s just about ideally weighted now. It’s also as wonderfully accurate and direct as ever.
As your speed rises, the steering’s weight returns to one that’ll be familiar to anyone who has driven an Elise. But the 2-Eleven always feels fleeter of foot than an Elise or an Exige. It turns in more easily and its body movements are even more impeccably controlled.
Its ride, however, is worse than a regular Elise’s. Like most very light cars, especially stiffly sprung ones like this, the 2-Eleven is easily deflected by bumps and surface imperfections. It’s better at high speeds than low ones, where the car skips over bumps rather than being knocked all over the place.
Nevertheless, it’s not too severe. It’s as good as a de Dion-axled Caterham, and given that a full-face helmet is all but essential anyway, you feel a little removed from the harshness.
On our test track, we snatched only four dry laps on the dry handling circuit in anything like dry conditions, yet the Lotus still breezed to 1m12.7sec, one of the fastest times we’ve set. Even so, we know we could have braked later and been back on the power sooner on at least two corners. On a dry day, this is probably a high 1m11sec car, which means it’s (easily) faster than a Ferrari 599 GTB or Porsche 911 GT3.
Given its extreme tyres, rear-biased weight distribution and overall lightness, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the 2-Eleven would be pretty hopeless in the wet. And though its circuit time of 1m11.5sec is not one that would have you writing home, it’s fairly respectable. At no point did the 2-Eleven feel like it was on tippytoes, and although it’s slower than an Elise 111R, it’s way faster than the aquaplaning-prone 911 GT3. The 2-Eleven’s suspension could no doubt be tweaked to go a little faster, too.
