Making Hybrids sound Sporty

Car & Driver magazine got a demo of the HALOsonic Sound Synthesis developed by Lotus Engineering for the Evora 414E Hybrid concept car. It allows the driver to select a range of different virtual engine configurations so that your hybrid sports car will still sound sporty even while running on electric power. Check out the video below for a full demo including virtual gear shifts.

[via Car & Driver]

Lotus F1 videos

Following on from todays official launch, Lotus F1 racing has released some official videos including our first glimpse of the T127 on track for its final shakedown as well as footage from the launch event.

Shakedown:

Launch:

Launch (behind the scene):

Powersliding a Seven

As the proud owner of a Seven clone I have been keeping an eye out for Seven related videos and this one is perfect advertisement for the car. Track4Fun, who are track day organizers and the official Caterham importers for Italy posted this wonderful in-car video of some Caterham owners powersliding their cars around a European racetrack. Hit play to see just how much fun it is to drift a Caterham R500 on a cold winter morning. The second video shows what occasionally happens when you get a little too ambitious with the throttle

[via Axis of Oversteer]

Tony Shute on the Evora Development cycle

TheManufacuturer.com has a fantastic video of a Tony Shute presentation on the design decisions and the development process that went into the creation of the Lotus Evora. It a bit tech heavy and quite long (38 min) but is definitely worth the watch and I guarantee that it will absolutely delight the engineer inside you.

Some of the highlights:

  1. Went from a clean sheet to final production in 27 months
  2. The front crash structure was designed and tested independent of the rest of the car
  3. The aluminum wishbones on both sides of the front and the rear uppers use the same tooling
  4. Headlight tooling was developed in China but uses UK parts
  5. Radiator acts as a front wing and generates downforces
  6. Main chassis consists of 20 extrusions
  7. Prototypes were built on the manufacturing line

Click here to watch the video

[TheManufacturer via LotusEnthusiast]

Health benefits of Autocrossing

At the last GGLC autocross Alex and I decided to try out a little experiment to see how your heart rate changes during the race. We used a Polar S720i to record his heart rate, an iPhone for video and a DL1 data logger to record G-force and speed readings. I used some simple PHP magic to sync the two data files together and used the Chasecam Dashware system to create this finished video.

You can see the speed, heart rate (BPM), longitudinal G (acceleration + braking) and lateral G in the dashboard on the top of the video. His average heart rate was in the low nineties while on the grid and rises to to 101 just before the start of the run. As the run progresses you can see it quickly rise all the way to 145 bpm by the end of the 45 second run. Just as interesting is the way his heart rate falls as soon as the run ends and drops to the low 130s just 10 seconds after the run. So now if anyone asks you why you autocross just say its for the health benefits 😉

Unfortunately the video quality is not as perfect and the heart rate only updates every 5 seconds but all in all it was a successful test of the system. I have already ordered a Polar RS800CX (1 sec resolution) and I plan to run this same setup for the duration of the Lemons race at Buttonwillow next month. So stay tuned for the health benefits of endurance racing 😀