On December 11, 2011, the 2011 season of the China Rally Championship (CRC) came to an end in Fogang, Guangdong. The Lotus Automobile Team, competing with the Lotus L3 model, made a great comeback in the Fogang leg. By sweeping the first and second places in Fogang, they successfully surpassed their competitors. The Lotus L3 outperformed many models including the Public Polo, Chery A3, Suzuki Splash, Ford Fiesta, and Toyota Yaris, winning the 2011 China Rally Championship (CRC) S2 Group Annual Championship. In this CRC 2011, the Lotus Automobile team dispatched two teams (Lotus Automobile Racing Team and Lotus Automobile Wing Lion Team) with nearly 10 Lotus L3 racing cars.
As the highest-level rally event in the country, during the six legs of competition in the 2011 season, the Lotus Automobile team became a new favorite on the rally field due to its stable performance and excellent results. Meanwhile, the Lotus L3 model representing the Lotus Automobile team was hailed as the "new king car" on the rally field.
The Lotus L3 model is the main model introduced by Lotus Automobile using British Lotus technology, with technical and quality control managed by British Lotus Automobiles. The entire vehicle perfectly inherits the outstanding sporty genes of British Lotus automobiles. With F1-level race car chassis tuning, the Lotus L3 stands out in the domestic sports sedan market.
Famous driver Hu Yunfei, the biggest contributor to Lotus Automobile's annual championship, praised the performance of the Lotus L3: "The Lotus L3 is absolutely a fine steed. Its lightweight body design and race car-style structural layout make handling agile and effortless during the race, enhanced by the stable and balanced front-to-rear 50:50 weight distribution."
"It is precisely thanks to the excellent sporty genes of the vehicle and the professionalism of the drivers that we were able to reverse our 7-point deficit before the final leg and win the annual championship. This is a victory for the drivers, but even more so for the Lotus products," said Xue Lei, manager of the Lotus Automobile team, with great passion about the team's championship win.