Rio tyre testing
At the time of going to press we were not in possession of the final times set in Rio and, anyway, forthcoming tests at Kyalami and Imola should prove a…
Is it a bird? is it a plane? Neither. It’s Lotus’ new E-R9 concept – a machine which you half drive, half fly… apparently. The E-R9, standing for Endurance Racer, has been developed as a design concept by Lotus Engineering as a way of giving a glimpse of an all-electric endurance racing future. Finished in the marque’s famous black and gold colours, it incorporates a central fighter jet-style canopy over the cockpit and a mass of active body panels promising to revolutionise aerodynamics. It will be four-wheel drive thanks to a quad of electric motors and has been designed to allow batteries to be ‘hot swapped’ – or rapidly replaced – during pitstops.
The concept also wears the number nine, in deference to the aluminium-bodied Lotus Mk IX with which Colin Chapman and Ron Flockhart first tackled Le Mans in 1955. Should it make the grid for 2030 as suggested, the E-R9 would celebrate the 75th anniversary of such an event.
Richard Hill, Lotus chief aerodynamicist, said: “We’ve tried to push the boundaries of where we are technically today and extrapolate into the future. The E-R9 incorporates technologies which we fully expect to develop and be practical. This will be partly driven like a car, partly flown like a fighter jet. Lotus has an amazing history of developing unique solutions.”