Lotus may have set a new record by destroying one of its own cars in the shortest possible time, accelerating from zero to total loss in less than three seconds.
The British brand, now in Chinese hands, made its £2 million Evija X electric hypercar debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Thursday afternoon.
Just a few metres after the start, the driver ended up in the straw bales, destroying the front of the unique 2,000 hp vehicle.
A one-off Lotus Evija X hypercar crashed just metres from the starting line at the Goodwood Festival of Speed yesterday
The £2 million prototype careened head-on into the straw bales just seconds into the race on the uphill course. The driver was fortunately unharmed, but the front of the car was covered in mulch
The Evija X is the track version of the Evija production hypercar. It is unclear what caused the crash, but commentators believed it was a software glitch with the all-electric car’s four motors
Spectators rightly expected something special from the extravagant Lotus EV prototype, but that didn’t happen in the way it ultimately did.
The Evija X made its ‘dynamic debut’ at Goodwood House on the Chichester estate, home to the annual Festival of Speed, and recently set a new record elsewhere.
Before it even took part (at all) in the first day of this year’s event, it had already made headlines for setting the fastest lap time around the Nürburgring for a ‘production car chassis vehicle’.
The time was so fast that it is the third fastest time ever recorded at the dangerous German circuit, bettered only by the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo and the Volkswagen ID.R thoroughbred race cars.
The ‘X’ track version, based on Lotus’ £2 million all-electric Evija road car, driven by racing hero Dirk Müller, set a blisteringly fast lap time of 6min 24sec around the fearsome Nordschleife.
But on Thursday, it took 6 minutes and 21 seconds less to turn the front into mulch.
The all-electric hypercar may now hold the unwanted record for the fastest crash in the event’s history.
Fortunately, the anonymous driver escaped unscathed, but not the unique electric hypercar.
The Evija X made headlines by setting the Nordschleife record for a production car chassis vehicle, with the X-tac version lapping the treacherous German circuit in 6 minutes and 24 seconds
Ready, set, go: The Lotus managed less than 3 seconds before spinning
It was all a smokescreen, with a massive burnout at the starting line before the car ended up in the shit
It is unclear what caused the crash, but speculators suspect a software problem.
You see the car burn out in a cloud of smoke as it takes off, but the 2,000-horsepower machine immediately loses control and ends up in the straw bales lining the track long before it reaches the first corner.
Lotus has not yet confirmed the cause and has yet to determine whether the announcers were correct in thinking it was a fault with the car’s four engines.
The project car is said to be worth around $2.3 million, which equates to around £1.8 million. Although the damage to the car was mainly broken carbon fibre, it is unlikely that Lotus will be able to rebuild the car to compete at Goodwood again this weekend.
If Lotus can repair the car for a second run, it has all the ingredients to challenge for the fastest time ever.
The unique hypercar accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in less than three seconds thanks to its enormous power of 2,011 hp, an (electronically limited) top speed of 350 km/h and a torque of 1,704 Newton meters. This makes it one of the fastest cars to ever complete the famous hill climb.
Let’s hope the animal actually disappears into the distance when it returns for a second attempt.
Holy Hillclimb, Batman! This tiny, Batmobile-looking electric car roared around Goodwood’s famous Hillclimb course in a new record time in 2022
The current fastest time on the Chichester House Hill route is run by a radical British-made electric car.
The McMurtry Spéirling, a battery-powered single-seater capable of 200 mph (322 km/h) and drawn onto the road by twin fans, completed the 1.16-mile (1.86-kilometer) route in 39.08 seconds in 2022.
With former Formula 1 driver Max Chilton behind the wheel, he improved the previous record, held by a specially developed electric Volkswagen, by almost a second.
The little McMurtry, which has been compared to a scaled-down Batmobile, is 1.5 meters wide and 3.3 meters long. That is smaller than a VW Up! city car.
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