Nürburgring-Spec Lotus Evija X Crashes at Goodwood Start Line

Back in April, the track-only Lotus Evija X beat every production car ever built with an astonishing Nürburgring lap time of 6:24. That made an appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed inevitable, but the electric prototype did not make turn 1 of its first run at the celebration of performance cars before it ended up in a wall.

The crash happened immediately after the Evija X started its run up the Goodwood hill climb. Replays show that the Lotus driver spun all four wheels on the start. The car struggled to get all 2000-some horsepower to the ground and eventually lost control completely, snapping sideways into a tire barrier before hitting head-on. The Evija kept spinning until it backed into the wall in a second hit, bringing the car to a halt.

An analyst on the event live stream speculates that the issue was a result of motor control software struggling to keep up with the burnout. That system, he believes, had some sort of fault while trying to grab ahold of the road after huge wheelspin on the car's start. If this were the case, that would mean one tire hooked up while the other did not, sending the car careening into the wall.

Lotus did not immediately respond to Road & Track's request for comment,

Hill climb runs were briefly stopped while crews tended to both the Lotus and a McLaren Solus that had suffered a mechanical issue on its start two runs earlier. If the track special can be repaired, Lotus will have three more days to make runs up the hill with the Evija X.

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