The time-attack-slanted all-electric Lotus Evija X prototype crashed directly into the wall on driver’s right as it was leaving the start line for a run up the hill at Goodwood on Thursday. The racer, based on Lotus’ electric hypercar, features nearly 2,000 horsepower, sticky racing slick tires, and enough downforce to shift the planet’s alignment in the solar system, but none of that was enough to prevent the driver from immediately losing control of the $2.3 million electric British exotic. With that kind of power it all happens in an instant, and something just didn’t line up quite right when the driver went into burnout mode, clattering all of the carbon right off the machine.
This is probably embarrassing for whoever was driving the car, but it is listed on the official entry list as “demo” and no driver is attributed to the car. The Evija X was driven to the third-fastest time in history at the Nürburgring Nordschleife by sportscar racing icon Dirk Müller, so it’s possible that he was onboard for the smash up. The standard Evija entered at Goodwood is listed with Multimatic driver Scott Maxwell onboard, so it’s possible he was in the car as well. The event broadcast refers to him only as “the driver.”
Aside from some embarrassment and a bit of broken carbon fiber, the car is probably largely fine. The walls at Goodwood FOS are simply large hay bales, so they’re not exactly as hard or grating as a concrete barrier. It seems likely Lotus will rebuild the car and have it ship shape perhaps even for further runs at Goodwood. You’ve really got to be gentle with the throttle pedal when you have two-thousand ponies underfoot.