Lotus looks to be going after the electric-car lap record at the Nürburgring with an outlandish, track-ready version of its 1972bhp Evija hypercar.
Understood to have been developed in partnership with race engineering firm Multimatic (known for its work on the Ford GT and Mercedes-AMG One), the heavily reworked prototype looks to be an almost entirely bespoke creation aimed at getting around a track as quickly as possible.
Lotus hasn't officially confirmed plans to beat the Volkswagen ID R's record lap time of 6min 05.336sec, but it's understood that the track had been hired out exclusively for this prototype run and the conditions were perfect for a practice run.
The British company hasn't announced a date for any official attempt on the record.
The biggest clue to this prototype's ambition is the towering swan-neck spoiler at the rear, which wouldn't look out of place at Pikes Peak.
A Lotus statement supplied to Autocar read: "The Evija X is an all-new technology concept from Lotus. Based on the Evija road car, it is the ultimate expression of Evija and has been testing on multiple race tracks in multiple countries in the last weeks.
"We have made great progress, successfully meeting all our objectives and learning about the challenges of lapping the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
"The Lotus engineering team continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible with the Evija and the world’s most powerful EV powertrain."
Among the modifications are a downforce-boosting carbonfibre side skirts, a huge front splitter and aero-enhancing canards in a bid to keep the Evija planted around the 12.9-mile lap.
Beyond the race-spec makeover, the Evija X is expected to pack more power than the standard Evija, which is already one of the most potent road cars on sale, with 1972bhp.
No doubt conceived to operate purely at the track, it looks to also be the recipient of stringent lightening processes aimed at bringing its kerb weight down from the road car's 1700kg.
Given that the Evija's standard battery weighs 718kg alone, this prototype is likely to have a much smaller pack, being geared more towards pace than endurance.
We can see that the headlights, brake lights and wing mirrors have been removed, too, and the centre-lock wheels – wrapped in ultra-sticky Pirelli P-Zero slick tyres – are no doubt some of the lightest available. The interior looks to have been stripped out to accommodate a full race-spec roll cage.
While not confirmed, the Evija X could be the first car to emerge from the newly created Lotus Advanced Projects (LAP) division, whose purpose is primarily to develop extreme, limited-run machines far removed from Hethel's road-car line-up.
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