The Lotus Evija X – a 2,000-horsepower electric hypercar prototype – was built by the British automaker with a single-point agenda to break records. A few months back, the $2.3 million one-off beast managed to set the third-fastest lap in Nürburgring history. Obviously, hopes were high when the track-only hypercar lined up at the starting point of the hill climb at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. However, it all went up in smoke when the Evija X immediately lost control after leaving the starting line, crashing spectacularly into the hay bales at Goodwood. Thankfully, the driver was unhurt in the incident, except for maybe a badly bruised ego.
There’s no word on who was behind the wheel when the incident happened. It could very well be famous German racecar driver Dirk Müller, who drove the Evija X around Nürburgring in April to set an astonishing lap time of 6:24. Multimatic driver Scott Maxwell could also be the one behind the unfortunate accident as he was listed as the person to drive the standard Evija entered at Goodwood. Even the broadcasters can be heard referring to him only as “the driver.”
Equipped with sticky racing tires and a massive rear wing, one would not expect the electric hypercar prototype to lose control so easily. However, it’s not uncommon for high-performance cars to crash right off the starting line at the Goodwood hill climb event. Many drivers start with a massive burnout to put up a show for the audience and heat up the tires. The person driving the 2,000-horsepower Lotus Evija X tried doing the same thing before crashing. An analyst on the event’s live stream claims it might be the hypercar’s software that could not keep up with the burnout, resulting in the crash.
The Evija X has four electric motors, each powering an individual wheel. The hypercar’s complex software is responsible for effective torque vectoring by individually controlling each motor. It’s quite possible that the software failed, causing the hypercar to lose control. While the impact destroyed the track-beast’s complex carbon fiber front end, the hay bales considerably dampened the impact. Hopefully, the damage is only cosmetic, and a change of bodywork and a few other minor fixes will be enough to get it ready for more on-track action.
