The Insane Lotus Evija Made Its Production Debut At Goodwood

Lotus Cars

The all-electric Lotus Evija hypercar made its long-awaited, production model debut at Goodwood SpeedWeek last weekend. Sharing tarmac with some of history’s greatest achievements in motorsports engineering is quite possibly the best way to introduce the world to the Evija, as it represents the next chapter in performance and racing development for the legendary British brand.

Three pre-production examples of the monumental EV were represented at SpeedWeek, one complete in a vibrant Lotus “Solaris Yellow” finish and two prototypes wrapped in stunning black and gold, paying tribute to the iconic Lotus liveries of yore. Appropriately, the prototypes will have an image Goodwood’s famous West Sussex circuit, with the words Lotus x Goodwood: Creating History since 1948 accompanying it. This is an acknowledgement of the year that a Lotus chassis was first brought to an event at the legendary circuit.

Among those lucky enough to experience the Evija was Lord March, son of the Duke of Richmond, who’s the host of Goodwood. He commented with great detail:

“The Evija is unbelievable – the power, the speed, I’ve never experienced anything like it – it was exceptional. This new dawn of electric hypercars brings ultimate motoring to life for a new generation and a younger audience. The advancement in electric cars over the last 10 years is astonishing. There is a huge amount of growth potential for these machines to continue allowing us to keep enjoying and driving high performance cars. Lotus continues to appeal to both the inner driver and the inner child in all of us – so much fun, and ultimately for the driver to control and enjoy.”

Gavan Kershaw, Director of Vehicle Attributes at Lotus, on how the weekend festivities went:

“We’re having a great time demonstrating the Evija here at Goodwood. Bringing the cars to an event like this is a welcome break from the hundreds of hours spent on proving grounds, where there’s a huge amount of open space and long straights to test the car’s performance limits. Goodwood is a fast and flowing circuit with numerous undulations in the surface, and so is a fantastic test and demonstration for the Evija as it’s the type of environment where many owners will use the car.”

Lotus was also one of the heavy-hitter brands at Goodwood this year. Here’s a list of some of the 50-or-so cars in attendance with their rounded, triangular badge affixed:

• Lotus 25 – the car driven by Jim Clark car during the 1963 F1 season when he won the Drivers’ Championship
• Lotus 18 – the car in which Sir Stirling Moss won the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix
• Lotus 49 – the car in which Graham Hill won the Monaco Grands Prix in 1968 and 1969
• Lotus 72-5 – Emerson Fittipaldi’s car from the 1970 season
• Lotus 72-7 – Emerson Fittipaldi’s main car from the 1972-73 seasons, and the car in which he won the most F1 races – five in total
• Lotus 79 – Mario Andretti’s main car from the 1978 season

Check out this video containing some thrilling footage of the Evija taking to the West Sussex circuit (the driver is wearing an Arai GP6S, by the way):