The Lotus 340R was a limited edition sports car manufactured by Lotus Cars in 2000 at their Hethel factory.
The 340R is a special edition of the Lotus Elise. Just 340 models were built, and all were sold before they were manufactured. It is the most extreme Lotus ever. No roof, no side windows, no doors, and absolutely no compromise. Faster and leaner than an Elise, more radical than the Renault Spider, it’s homologated, road-legal and ready for production barely nine months after being rubber-stamped by Lotus management. It’s an astonishing achievement. The most obvious is the adoption of a broader front bib spoiler, which extends either side of the nose to form Formula One-style winglets. They perform a double function , creating aerodynamic downforce and offering protection for pedestrians who would otherwise be dragged beneath the front Wheels in the event of an accident.
David Minter, 340R engineering project manager, felt that the more steeply raked wing was vital. ‘We always work towards a car with aerodynamic balance, and this wing helps us achieve that. With the front and rear wings we haven’t just cancelled lift but generated some serious downforce.’ Sounds good to us.
All 340 cars came with a silver and black colour scheme. Special A038R tyres were developed for the 340R in collaboration with Yokohama.
While road-legal in the UK, most of the surviving 340 cars are used for racing, track use, or demonstrations.
340R was first meant to have 340 bhp /Ton but this was not achieved so they instead built 340 cars so the name still stood for something.
Body
Carbon Fibre body with detachable panels.
Chassis
Lotus-designed monocoque structure of epoxy-bonded aluminium alloy extrusions incorporating integral steel roll over structure and lightweight steel rear subframe.
Suspension
F1 type double wishbones with single coil springs over monotube Lotus Motorsports 2-way adjustable dampers and ride height.
Engine
The engine is a 1.8 litre four cylinder tweaked version of the Rover K-Series engine called VHPD (Very High Power Derivate) used in the regular Elise which produces 177 bhp (132 kW) at 7800 rpm/ 172 N·m (127 ft·lbf) at 6750 rpm as standard, or 187 bhp (139 kW) at 7500 rpm/ 189 N·m (139 ft·lbf) at 5600 rpm (190 PS) with optional Lotus accessories.
Specifications
Weight: 701 kg (kerb: all fluids and full tank of fuel)
Performance: 0-100 km/h 4,4 sec, 0-160 km/h (99 mph) 10,7sec, top 209 km/h (130 mph)
Power to Weight: 252 bhp/Ton or 3,96 kg/bhp
Transmission: Rover 5 speed PG1 Close Ratio Gearbox
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