__NOTOC__ The Lotus 340R is a limited edition

sports car A sports car is a type of automobile that is designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as Automobile handling, handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving, and Auto racing, racing capability. Sports cars originated in ...

manufactured by

Lotus Cars Lotus Group (also known as Lotus Cars) is a British multinational automotive manufacturer of luxury sports cars and electric vehicles. Lotus Group is composed of three primary entities. Lotus Cars, a high-performance sports car company, is ba ...

in 2000 at their

Hethel Hethel is a small village in the civil parish of Bracon Ash, in the English county of Norfolk. Hethel is located south-east of the market town of Wymondham, and approximately south of the city of Norwich. History Hethel's name is of Angl ...

factory.

Overview

Originally introduced as a concept car at the 1998

Birmingham Motor Show The British International Motor Show was an annual (bi-biennial after 1976) motor show held by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) between 1903 and 2008 in England. The show was relaunched in 2021 with a new location at Farnbo ...

, the 340R is a special edition of the

Lotus Elise The Lotus Elise is a sports car conceived in early 1994 and released in September 1996 by the British manufacturer Lotus Cars. A two-seater Roadster (automobile), roadster with a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, the Elise has a fibregl ...

. 340 were built, and all were sold before they were manufactured. It uses a custom built bodyshell with no roof or doors. All cars came with a silver and black colour scheme although some of them were painted in several OEM colours. Special A038R tyres were developed for the 340R in collaboration with

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

. While road-legal in the UK and Europe, most of the surviving cars are only used for

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

, track use, or demonstrations.

Engine

The engine is a four-cylinder version of the 1.8L

Rover K-Series engine The Rover K-series engine is a series of internal combustion engines built by Powertrain Ltd, a sister company of MG Rover. The engine was a straight-four cylinder built in two forms, SOHC and DOHC, ranging from . Design history The K seri ...

called VHPD (Very High Power Derivative) used in the regular Elise which produces at 7800 rpm and at 6750 rpm as standard, or at 7500 rpm and at 5600 rpm with optional Lotus accessories. The former can accelerate to 60 mph from a standstill in 4.4 seconds and has a top speed of .

Specifications

*0- 10.7 sec *

Power-to-weight ratio Power-to-weight ratio (PWR, also called specific power, or power-to-mass ratio) is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement ...

: /Ton or /bhp *Price: £35,000

References

External links

Independent 340R site
340R Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles Sports cars Cars introduced in 2000 {{Modern-auto-stub Open wheel cars