On 10 April, the Formula 1 Grand Prix will take place in Melbourne, Australia, two years apart. Since 1996, the Australian Grand Prix has been located in Melbourne as the season opener, and has become an important symbol of the start of the new F1 season in the minds of many fans, and this return is of great significance to many people.
With more than 70 years of history in F1, the story is naturally more than australia. In 1950, the FIA hosted its first "World Championships" in the UK, and the prototype of F1 began with a track converted from an abandoned airport runway after World War II.
In the '60s, British teams set off their first technological revolution in events that originated in their hometowns. When the Italian and German "elders" regarded them as an inferior "garage team", Cooper's mid-engined racing cars won the 1959 and 1960 world championships with flexibility and dynamic performance, attracting teams to follow suit, while Lotus founder Colin Chapman took a different approach, using the mastery of aircraft fundamentals and the extraordinary talent of racing car design during his service in the Royal Air Force to exert aerodynamics as important technical effects as engines.
Colin Chapman with Lotus Team
Chapman's Lotus team has been active in F1 for decades, establishing itself as the king of the track with countless victories and innovative technologies that continue to break through. In this process, Lotus has left countless technical wealth for the entire automobile civilization, and many racing car designs pioneered by Lotus have completely changed the rules of F1, and some genius inventions have even been banned by F1 because they are too "bug", and the "ground effect" is one of them. In 2022, F1 events restarted the "ground effect", once again stirring the excitement of fans around the world, and people could not help but dream back to the "Lotus era" that was frequently conceived.
Throughout lotus history, "wind" is an almost timeless theme. On the track, the wind is the natural opponent of the car, and the air resistance of the car when driving at high speed is greatly affected by the speed, and the air resistance will increase exponentially with each increase in speed. The process of racing the track is the process of fighting against the wind.
In 1962, Chapman designed the Lotus Type 25 racing car, pioneering the traditional concept of a tubular space frame chassis and instead adopting an aircraft-style single-hull structure that reduced the waste of space and minimized the air resistance ahead, so the Type 25 also became the slimnest F1 racing car of the year. The following year, talented racing driver Jim Clark drove the Type 25 to win the first Team/Driver of the Year championship for Lotus Racing.
Lotus Type 25
However, blindly reducing the weight of the car and reducing the wind resistance will make the car "float" in the extreme speed, chapman applied the aircraft wing inspiration to the racing car, officially leading F1 into the aerodynamic era.
Fast forward to 1968, the Lotus Type 49, the first car with a fixed wind wing, won its third F1 constructors' championship for Lotus. Its rear-like wing-like device ended the history of racing cars searching for grip only from the chassis and tires, once again changing the rules of F1 and the design thinking of major manufacturers. At the same time, the Type 49 also innovatively adopts a wedge-shaped design, which also enables the car to better balance wind resistance and downforce at high speeds and achieve body stability.
Lotus Type 49
Ten years later, Chapman's research on wind resistance and downforce reached new heights, and after designing the 27-page original manuscript himself, the most innovative Lotus Type 79 was born in 1978. This legendary car that has dominated the F1 race for ten years, in addition to generating great downforce through the wind fixing wing, has added a long and narrow skirt close to the road surface under the side of the body, forming an invisible "vacuum" area between the chassis and the ground of the car, using the air flow zone above the body and the "vacuum" area below to form a pressure difference, further tightening the chassis on the road surface, so that the entire body becomes the source of downforce, which is the ground effect. It was this legendary car that introduced the "ground effect" to F1 races for the first time, which also allowed Lotus to monopolize almost all the awards in F1 that year.
Lotus Type 79
Chapman and Lotus's technical team's pursuit of aerodynamics has given Lotus racing a strong dominance on the field, and classic models have also entered the glorious history of F1.
Ride the wind, from the track to the road
Lotus's focus on aerodynamics also extends to its production sports cars, derived from the design and efficient performance of the track, which makes Lotus sports cars show a unique charm. In decades of inheritance and innovation, Lotus's application of aerodynamic technology in automobiles has been deepening, and in 2019, Lotus released the first pure electric Hyper Car Evija, using a pioneering "pore" design, integrating aerodynamic performance into the body form to show, truly realizing the "performance definition aesthetics" car philosophy.
Lotus Evija
The Type 79 formed airflow between the body and the ground 40 years ago, and Evija gave this great design a new lease of life, introducing airflow through the pores into the body. On the front face, front and rear wheels and rear of the Evija, the art of porosity can be seen everywhere. As you travel, airflow runs through the underside, roof, and side waistlines, directing high-energy air to the rear of the car against "lift" that increases with speed. At the same time, the venturi effect caused by the pores allows air to flow at high speed to the arched air guide plate of the rear wheel, combing the air flow and increasing the downforce.
The "porosity" design allows the Evija to generate about 1800kg of downforce at a very high speed of 320km/h, which even exceeds the 1680kg weight of the car itself, and theoretically, if conditions permit, it can even be driven directly upside down to the ceiling.
At the same time, the ingenuity of opening up the airway on the body also gives the Evija a body line and a unique sense of strength that seems to flow with the air.
Today, the design concept has once again been interpreted in the Eletre, Lotus's first pure electric Hyper SUV. Before taking a peek at the Eletre, it's hard to imagine that the word "Hyper" stands for speed and track in an SUV, and one has to wonder what kind of SUV Lotus, which focuses on racing and sports cars, will design.
However, when seeing the full picture of Eletre, I believe many people will feel unexpected and reasonable: the aerodynamic design can be shown so vividly on an SUV, and then think of it from Lotus, the aerodynamic guru, it is also relieved.
Lotus Eletre
The Eletre is a true Lotus, and as Ben Payne, head of the Coventry Lotus Technology and Creativity Centre (LTCC) and designer of Eletre, puts it, "the Eletre embodies the whole new height that the 'Carved by Air' concept can reach".
"Carved by air", that is, the wind gallops, accurately summarizes the design method and styling characteristics of Eletre, and the essence of aerodynamic design that has been tested by the track for decades is reflected in every detail of it.
Eletre reinforces the visual lightweight, and clearly highlights the pore details, just look at the pores and passages of the Eletre body, you can feel the speed of the body to cut through the air, imagine the flow path of the wind inside and outside the car. The inlet grille of the non-polar variable active type can be automatically opened according to the vehicle speed, and automatically closed when the resistance needs to be reduced, and the introduced air flow can also play a role in cooling the transmission system and the battery pack. The sharply lined front nose intake splits the oncoming airflow, and the opening of the bypass tube under the front of the car guides air back to the top of the hood. Air intakes located under the headlights direct air into the car and into the wheel arches, further reducing wind resistance. The porous design behind the front wheels draws air from the wheels and creates a passage on the side of the body, which not only enhances the aerodynamic performance, but also makes the shape of the door lines more subtle.
Following the through-waist line to the rear, a large exhaust duct draws air out of the engine room. The pipes that pass through the D-pillar effectively control the wake, the fixed tail fins on the roof help keep air attached to the rear windows, and the active rear spoiler helps dynamically balance drag and downforce.
Overall, Eletre combines delicate and smooth surfaces with clear and deep lines to give the vehicle a sense of speed that really looks like it's in the air. Lotus's aerodynamic experts have described the design method of resisting the wind, like "butterflies passing through the air instead of parachutes", aptly showing the "wind controller" Lotus's interpretation of air again.
"Beat the Rules", the slogan representing Eletre, is the brand's attitude to inheritance, innovation and pursuit of the ultimate, and the spirit of Lotus gives Eletre a unique soul, making it worthy of the name of "Hyper". The real leader will always be the pioneer of the track, in the new track of electrification, intelligence and globalization, Lotus is riding the wind, will give Eletre the brand's first pure electric Hyper SUV how charming, we wait for its debut in China.
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