Niche British sports car makers like Lotus have been finding it increasingly difficult to compete in a globalized world, though not for a lack of trying. The Hethel-based automaker used this summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed to introduce its latest speed-crazed offering, the Lotus 3-Eleven, pairing a 450 horsepower supercharged V6 that can blast the flyweight roadster from 0 to 60 MPH in less than three seconds. It’s supposed to represent a no way forward for Lotus, and as such requires a new level of testing.

To that end Lotus left the warm confines of the Hethel, England headquarters and test track to take a two week trip to Germany’s famous Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. There the team would rack up more than 1,200 miles of test time on the prototype car in a bid to dial everything in before (extremely) limited production begins.

This is the first public outing for the Lotus 3-Eleven since its Goodwood debut, and weighing less than 2,000 pounds it was obviously built with the intention of slaying competitors on the race track. Lotus will sell two versions of the 3-Eleven, a street legal “Road” model and the track-only “Race” series. It’s the Race model that can claim the 3 second 0 to 60 time, though the Road version will have a slightly higher top speed, 180 MPH to the Race’s 174.

The testing apparently proved fruitful, as engineers were able to dial in enhancements that improved the 3-Eleven’s performance markedly. While Lotus owns a 55 acre campus that includes a 2.5 mile RAF Airfield-turned race track, the 12.9 mile Nordschleife provides a much more varied topography that includes greater elevation changes, bigger banking corners, and just general variety of track features. That’s why it has become the go-to-track for benchmarking sports car performance.

From the little footage we see, the Lotus 3-Eleven looks like it can handle the Nordschleife and typical British tenacity. But is that enough to keep Lotus afloat?