Can Lotus bring back the beautiful hypercar?

“We decided early on that our approach with the Evija would be more subtle and sophisticated; that the aerodynamic performance of the car would naturally flow from detailed consideration of the way in which air flows around, over, under and through the car. Our design guys are incredibly capable; they can make anything I throw at them look elegant. We work hand in glove.”

The Evija has a deployable active rear wing, and other movable aerodynamic surfaces that give it several operating modes which juggle downforce against drag in different proportions. It doesn’t have variable ride height, though, and so doesn’t suck itself down onto the Tarmac like a Ford GT or McLaren P1. For now, Lotus remains coy about exactly how much downforce it might be able to make. It’s as much a road car as a track car, they say; which is probably code for ‘don’t expect Senna-like figures’.

What the Lotus does have are large venturi tunnels running through its bodywork and encircling its cabin, which create a sense of what its creators like to call ‘porosity’. The closer you look, the more clearly these aerodynamic features are revealed to you. And while features of their ilk are not unique to the Evija, they are particularly striking - feeding to a particular purpose unlike those of its rival hypercars.

“Our venturi tunnels allow the car to shape the airflow around it, rather than punching its way through it with brute force,” Hill goes on. “They feed air directly to the corners of the car, to cool the electric motors; but, more importantly, they also channel it down the sides of the car, accelerate it through the rear haunches and then fire it out into the car’s wake. By aiming that high-velocity air directly into the vacuum behind the car, we greatly reduce drag; and so, instead of hauling a parachute behind it, it’s as if the car’s towing a butterfly net instead.”