More impressive is how, as gears crank up nicely in the serious realm, the rate of acceleration barely drops. The Evija hits its 140mph limiter with enough room on Hethel’s longer straights to make me wonder how fast he could go without him. Lotus predicts that the finished Evija will go from rest to 186 mph in nine seconds – 4.6 seconds more than a Bugatti Chiron. Such is the lack of drama, this number always seems impossible after driving the car.
The Evija doesn’t obviously feel like four-wheel drive, either. Even with the prototype’s fixed torque distribution, it is difficult to detect power at the steered wheels, and hitting curbs only under strong acceleration produces a feeling of slight corruption. On cold tires, the handling balance is unsurprisingly at the rear in Hethel’s slower corners, but once the Trofeos are up to temperature, the chassis becomes incredibly neutral, even under big throttles.
Beyond that, it can be persuaded to oversteer, although the inside rear tire tends to spin first when the enormous grip eventually wears off. The production car’s ability to couple the vector should bring more discipline.
The finished Evija will have active aerodynamics, using a hydraulically adjustable rear spoiler and active flap diffuser, as well as tunnels generating venturi that run through the rear flanks. Lotus has yet to release a downforce target but promises the car will be able to create serious amounts of downforce.
The prototype elements are set in a reasonably high downforce configuration and their contribution is evident in Hethel’s faster turns – although the steering doesn’t gain weight as the forces increase. The conservative ABS calibration and the Evija’s ability to achieve high speed even on short straights also require surprisingly early braking points, given the motorsport-grade Brembo CC-R carbon-ceramic rotors, and the slowdown is the only time the mass of the Evija seems evident.
Fifteen minutes of driving on the track poses the big problem of enjoying the full performance of the Evija: limited autonomy. Lotus is confident that the final version will handle a WLTP rating of 215 miles, but more intensive use will eat up the battery charge much faster. The Evija will take over charging at speeds of up to 350 kW, ultimately allowing the battery to be recharged in a little longer than it takes even for the most difficult uses. But that still means that participants in high-end track days are likely to spend a lot of time on their feet, even with easy access to the most powerful chargers.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-04-27 23:01:23
