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For a long time, many small partners have been difficult to distinguish the difference between sports cars and supercars. In fact, at the simplest level, supercar means faster and more expensive, after all, supercar requires not only high research and development costs, exaggerated aerodynamic design and strong power reserves, but also they often have a lot of technology from racing. For example, the DRS variable tail wing on the McLaren P1, the Kers kinetic energy recovery system of Ferrari LaFerrari, etc., these familiar technologies come from the F1 arena. But when it comes to real technology, it is necessary to mention Lotus, which is famous for its lightweight and aerodynamic design.
Magician of racing
As one of the oldest British sports car brands, when it comes to Lotus, most of the words that come to mind are lightweight, carbon fiber and extreme driving control, so "large kart" has become synonymous with Lotus. But in fact, Lotus is most proud of the aerodynamic design, knowing that more than half a century ago, they have made some very exaggerated technical designs that are ahead of their time, and now seem like magic. And this "magician" who can tame the air is the founder of Lotus, Colin Chapman.
Colin Chapman may be the most appropriate word to describe as legendary and crazy, since the early 50s, after founding Lotus and forming the Lotus team, he has always adhered to the concept of "aerodynamics + lightweight", so from the first Lotus Mark I it modified, this concept has been put into every aspect of car building, car modification and racing.
Although in an era when there were no wind tunnel laboratories, the madness that belonged to Colin had begun to spread. Colin and his friend Frank Costin built a simple version of the "human wind tunnel" in order to realize the aerodynamic design concept. You read that right, one person drives, another person lies on the cashmere-covered engine compartment cover, and then observes the direction of movement of the cashmere at a speed of 160 km/h. It was also under these conditions that the Lotus Mark 8 came into being, entering the international racing arena and succeeding in one fell swoop. Since then, the road to the king of Lotus aerodynamics has also begun.
Lotus Elite
With a dedication to aerodynamic design, Lotus Elite, Lotus's first civilian car, introduced in 1957, achieved an ultra-low drag coefficient of 0.29Cd. If you don't have a concept, let me take Porsche's flagship supercar 918 Spyder as an example, its drag coefficient is 0.35Cd, but you know, these two models have a nearly 40-year age difference, enough to see Colin's madness and technical strength.
Lotus Type 49
If this is just "crazy", then Lotus's achievements in F1 may be described as "exaggerated". The 1968 Type 49 Lotus car pioneered F1 lightweight and aerodynamics, with an engine with a DFV structure that can become part of the body's stress structure, resulting in extreme weight reduction. The design that became F1's "first in history" also included a fixed wind wing, just as an aircraft without wings could keep the Type 49 car firmly pressed on the track, and when other teams began to think about how to slow down and turn, they saw the Type 49 skimming low from the side.
Interestingly, while other teams began to emulate these designs, Lotus created a more radical Type 79 car, which was also a key model that really helped it become the originator of aerodynamics, and "ground effect" was the key word for this vehicle.
Lotus Type 79
In designing the Type 79 race car, Colin, in order to maximize the use of the Venturi effect in order to give the vehicle more powerful downward pressure, Lotus created a skirt solution for it, which is equivalent to closing the sides of the tunnel, so that more air flow can pass through the "tunnel" to reduce the possibility of flowing out of both sides, and finally obtain more downforce.
This powerful "ground effect" brings a lot of aura to Lotus, whether it is cornering, straight or overtaking, it is almost the existence of crushing opponents, which also makes Lotus win the F1 team and the driver's double championship that year with a huge advantage of 12 pole positions and 8 sub-station championships. However, such a bug-like existence obviously caused dissatisfaction among other teams and the FIA, and eventually the FIA directly banned the "Venturi effect" on the grounds of "safety".
Why is aerodynamics so important?
So why is aerodynamics so important for a supercar? First of all, since it is called a supercar, acceleration, extreme speed and braking distance must be the first constant factors. From a relatively simple level to think, as long as the car is light enough and the horsepower is large enough, then the "basic qualities" of these supercars are already available. That is to say, if the car company does not hesitate to increase the vehicle manufacturing materials at any cost, a large number of aluminum and magnesium alloys, and even carbon fiber, can basically achieve lightweight. Previously, relevant experiments have proved that for every 10% weight loss of a sports car, its acceleration time and braking distance can be reduced by 8% and 2 to 7 meters respectively.
Secondly, in terms of horsepower, the "simple and rough" choice of large displacement, large turbine, integration into the light hybrid system and even such as electric vehicles directly stack batteries and motors, can indeed achieve a big leap in the general power parameter improvement. But just having power and lightweighting is almost equivalent to giving a small slope to take off, and it is certainly not enough to stand on the ground in the field of supercaring, the key factor is aerodynamics.
Friends who have seen racing know that unless you are playing a straight-line acceleration race, in most races, the grip and stability of the corners are the secret to winning the race. After all, only with excellent aerodynamic design can you keep up with your opponents in the corners and not be disturbed by the turbulence of the car in front of you on the straight. On that note, just look at the exciting struggles of F1 teams on the pitch after the ground effect was reactivated this year to see how important aerodynamics really is.
In the era of electrification, air is more important
Although fuel vehicles are gradually replaced by new energy, as a British sports car brand adhering to the track gene, Lotus has further brought the ability to "play the wind" to the new model, its first pure electric supercar - Evija.
Lotus pure electric supercar Evija
With a powerful aerodynamic lean, Evija can be described as armed to the teeth, and the front air intake part is directly integrated with another black technology of F1 - the double-layer spoiler design. This design not only provides greater downforce to maintain the stability of the body, but also has a great help to the cooling effect of the battery pack, which can be said to be not only a powerful aerodynamic design, but also a tribute to F1 racing cars.
What's even more interesting is that the Venturi Tunnel, although banned by F1, reappeared on this Evija with greater strength. The diffuser at the rear of the car and the two hollowed-out holes form the first "porosity" design concept, which not only achieves the effect of reducing air resistance, but also achieves stronger downforce than the "ground effect". Combined with the F1 same DRS variable rear wing, the Evija can reach a downforce of 1,800Kg at a speed of 320km/h, directly exceeding its own weight. Remember Michael Schumacher driving the SLS around a 360-degree circle in a tunnel? Evija can be opened directly to the ceiling with more exaggerated sticking!
It is worth mentioning that although the Type 132 is an SUV model that meets the needs of multiplayer and multi-scene driving, this big guy also inherits the porous design concept of the 20 million-level pure electric supercar Evija. It is reported that the model will adopt an active aerodynamic design, so that the front and rear of the car can directly have a downforce of 110 kg and 80 kg, and accelerate within 3 seconds from 100 km/h. So it seems that not to mention Porsche and Bentley, even tesla Model X is not going to be a tiger?
To be honest, in this era when car companies have chosen to "build cars on the computer", it is really difficult to have another work that can make consumers look forward to it so much, recalling the famous sentence of Colin's grandfather: "Adding power makes you faster on the straights, subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere" Weight loss allows you to run faster anywhere), and perhaps Lotus gives us a model to look forward to and a reason to look forward to.
Write at the end
Thankfully, we have met brands like Lotus in the best of times, constantly subverting tradition and continuously innovating, whether it is sports cars or racing cars, from internal combustion engines to electrification, in every era they are like magic, creating a variety of interesting technologies and models, making the car culture more colorful, but also making the entire automotive industry proud.