Official Thread [Official] Lotus Electric Hypercar now confirmed

[Jonathan19]

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[Tourbillon]

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It's Rosso Corsa!

 

[Centurion]

It's Rosso Corsa!

Right? I was thinking wtf. Who chose that colour for a lotus customer event?

 

[Revvd]

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Sucks that we didn't get to see what full power is like.

We're in software development phase 4, with final sign-off being development phase 5.

So those deliveries at Monterey Car Week last month were essentially like me buying an Early Access game on Steam. Sure, you can download it and run it, but it's unfinished at best, and more often than not, just broken a.f.

Good video, tho. Nice of Lotus to give us a downforce figure: 1,680 kg @ 350 kph (857 kg @ 250 kph).
And it looks like they managed to beat their late development weight target with those final 1,850 kg.
Love the red paint color too!

 

[Bridster]

Good video, tho. Nice of Lotus to give us a downforce figure: 1,680 kg @ 350 kph (857 kg @ 250 kph).
And it looks like they managed to beat their late development weight target with those final 1,850 kg.
Love the red paint color too!

I doubt both figures very much. Looking at the design of the car, 200-300kg downforce at 250kph max. 857kg would overload the tires and result in a drag coefficient of 0.4+, which means the electric range would be like 100 miles.

Lotus also BS about weight a lot. The Emira was claimed to be 1400kg, later turned out to be 1480kg. The Eletre was targeted at 2000kg, then later claimed to be 2490kg, but actually weighed at 2640kg. I will bet anything this car is not 1850kg. Around 2000kg would be my guess - if not more.

Other than that, yeah, BS deliveries at Monterey, although this sort of thing seems to be very common and Lotus are not the only guilty party. Same thing with the Nevera, the T.50, even the upcoming Cybertruck - to name just a few. Either way, I skimmed through the video briefly and it doesn't look like we'll get any other "first drives" out ofthe event. The proper press test drives are probably being saved for when the car is actually finished - which probably won't be this year.

 

[Sunny]

the Nevera, the T.50, even the upcoming Cybertruck

Or any Tesla optoned with FSD which is perpetually in beta.

 

[Tourbillon]

Right? I was thinking wtf. Who chose that colour for a lotus customer event?

No idea man no idea!

 

[Tourbillon]

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Just watched it, SICK car period. It's the DYNAMICS I was primarily interested in James is a solid driver and I don't know who the other guy was but he was seemingly impressed and he's given his verdict. He's driven it on track.

As for delays well Covid hit everything and then they changed OEM suppliers twice I know of. Anyway well f#cking impressed. Very.

 

[Revvd]

I doubt both figures very much. Looking at the design of the car, 200-300kg downforce at 250kph max. 857kg would overload the tires and result in a drag coefficient of 0.4+, which means the electric range would be like 100 miles.

It does seem a bit optimistic.
The way they quoted the number at top speed is already sus. You'd expect the active wing to be in low drag mode and diffuser flaps stalling the flow to facilitate achieving that speed. Not be in their most aggressive modes.
Maybe Lotus went all in and cherry picked the value with airbrake deployed.

But if the downforce isn't what it's purported to be, then why do you think they run heave dampers front and rear?

BTW, did you know Evija has a widget that gives you real time downforce estimation on the screen? Move over M4 drift score, we have a new king for the coolest telemetry stat

 

[Revvd]

One more thing. I noticed the Multimatic dampers in JWW's video were labeled ESV, if my eyes serve me right. Previously they had DSSV stickers. I wonder what's that about...

 

[Bridster]

It does seem a bit optimistic.
The way they quoted the number at top speed is already sus. You'd expect the active wing to be in low drag mode and diffuser flaps stalling the flow to facilitate achieving that speed. Not be in their most aggressive modes.
Maybe Lotus went all in and cherry picked the value with airbrake deployed.

But if the downforce isn't what it's purported to be, then why do you think they run heave dampers front and rear?

BTW, did you know Evija has a widget that gives you real time downforce estimation on the screen? Move over M4 drift score, we have a new king for the coolest telemetry stat

Why they are using heave dampers is a good question.

Trying to eyeball how much downforce a car makes is a tricky matter, because aerodynamics can be sometimes quite unintuitive and you don't always see all the surfaces either (such as the shape of the cars diffuser). However, there are several things that I see that don't really favor the car.

One is, the rear wing is way too low. If you see all the wings on cars that produce actual downforce, the rear wing is very high, almost above the roof. That's because behind the cabin there is gonna be a wake of dirty, low energy air, with which you can't really make any downforce. That's the same reason for why cabins in LMP cars are so narrow. The wing on the Evija is completely covered by the cabin wake even in it's highest position, so it's gonna be pretty useless. Additionally, as it's an active wing that can completely disappear in the bodywork, it has no endplates. So even the ends of the wing that are in the clean air will be ineffective because the high pressure air on the top is gonna spill into the low pressure region below.

The other is these big air channels that you see exiting in the back through the two big holes. That's probably done for aerodynamic efficiency, but sending air there will lower the base suction behind the car - and that in turn will make the diffuser produce less downforce, as diffusers depend on the low pressure region behind the car to pull the air through. I also don't see any active elements there so that effect seems to be present all the time and can't be turned off for more downforce.

Lastly, there is very little optimization in general when you look at the car. If you look at the 992 GT3RS, or the Senna, or the Viper ACR - cars with actual downforce - you see a lot more vanes and strakes and air channels where they tried to get the every single last bit out of it. There is none of that on the Evija, although the Evija actually claims to have more downforce than all of them.

For the downforce claim, I suspect, they are using the same trick manufacturers often used in the past before there were really any cars producing a lot of downforce. And that's adding all the downforce the car produces, but not substracting the lift. Cars produce a lot of lift naturally, so most of the downforce you add just goes into negating that. A car that produces 200kg net downforce, for example, might produce 400kg of downforce and 200kg of lift. Lotus is probably claiming just the downforce before the lift. Or it's completely made up. Either way there is no way it's producing 857kg.

 

[Porsche Guy]

One more thing. I noticed the Multimatic dampers in JWW's video were labeled ESV, if my eyes serve me right. Previously they had DSSV stickers. I wonder what's that about...

I believe they are Multimatic's Adaptive Spool Valve (ASV) dampers. They use an electric motor to rotate a sleeve that opens and closes different ports in the spool valve to change damping characteristics. Version of this are on the AMG One, Ford GT and Ford GTE.

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[Revvd]

Trying to eyeball how much downforce a car makes is a tricky matter...

Thanks for the analysis. Downforce is such a fascinating and fun topic.
It is hard to believe a car with all these sub-optimal aero elements, as you pointed them out, would generate higher downforce than a Koenigsegg Jesko Attack, which has high-mounted, double element wing with endplates.

The other is these big air channels that you see exiting in the back through the two big holes. That's probably done for aerodynamic efficiency, but sending air there will lower the base suction behind the car - and that in turn will make the diffuser produce less downforce, as diffusers depend on the low pressure region behind the car to pull the air through.

There is even an animation on youtube showing Evija in an air stream... It looks like it's made by Lotus, but I really have no way to verify that.
Anyway, in that video, you can clearly see the air flow particles from the diffuser, bouncing off of the air from the (taillight) channel. I'm not an expert, but it seems like that kind of in-fighting between two air streams would be a problem for the aerodynamics
Not sure why they didn't end those body tunnels with an upswing of sorts. Guess it would ruin the styling.

...adding all the downforce the car produces, but not substracting the lift

That is such a weird way to even think about downforce. That's like me saying I'm a genius, if you take away all the dumb shit I've ever said.

 

[Tourbillon]

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[A.P.]

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Sooooo does anyone know if they actually delivered one of these to a customer's garage? There isn't a single spot or any info of anyone driving their "delivered" cars. (looking at you Jenson Button)

What's going on? Just vaporwave at car shows/supposed launch events and no show on the roads?

 

[Tourbillon]

Sooooo does anyone know if they actually delivered one of these to a customer's garage? There isn't a single spot or any info of anyone driving their "delivered" cars. (looking at you Jenson Button)

What's going on? Just vaporwave at car shows/supposed launch events and no show on the roads?

Well they've stated deliveries have started. I can go (eventually) on the Lotus boards I guess to find out.

But the V16 hypercar has most of my (little) attention now!

 

[Tourbillon]

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[Tourbillon]

Portugal within the last week. Portimão GP Circuit plus first road test drives.

 

[Tourbillon]

Plus the attending clients and guests were also given privileged access to a currently unknown confidential special project not yet formally announced to the media, apparently.

 

[KiwiRob]

Plus the attending clients and guests were also given privileged access to a currently unknown confidential special project not yet formally announced to the media, apparently.

My guess is that's got to be either a convertible or a track only version based off the Ring record attempt vehicle.