Lotus Evora Wins 2008 Aluminium Award!
Yes, yes. The Evora isn’t for sale yet. But if Forbes could award the Lotus-based Tesla Roadster its 2006 “New car that best lived up to the Hype” award before a single lithium-ion-powered sports car was in production (they are in production, right?), well why not give the prospective Lotus Evora a gong for its aluminum construction? [NB: we were going to go to the International World Trade Fair ‘Aluminium 2008’ at Messe Essen in Germany, but just couldn’t get the hang of saying “Al Lou Minny-Um.”] And if I read this press release correctly, the Evora deserves the shiny statuette– at least in theory. “The Lotus Evora employs a composite roof as a stressed structural member to give an exceptional vehicle stiffness of 26,000 Nm per degree, thanks in part to the seatbelt anchorage frame’s secondary function as a roll over structure, and partly because the high-tech composite body panels are stressed items… To deliver this high performance structure, bonded and riveted high grade aluminium extrusions and simple, elegant folded sheet elements are used in the lower structure, which complements the stressed composite roof upper structure. Attached to the high strength central tub are sacrificial energy absorbing subframes of extruded aluminium at the front and lightweight welded steel at the rear.” And that’s how you add lightness. I think.
More by Robert Farago
Comments
Join the conversation
topdog, No, an elise certainly will not laugh off an accident, but there are parts that will perform much better than some twice the weight (the side door beam design is awesome.) I would not be surprised to see this new hardtop act as a wedge allowing a much larger car to go over it while protecting the occupants. Another likely result would be the lotus bouncing off. I saw a civic do this once. The SUV actually got the worse end of the deal. Neither passenger was harmed, but the Civic ended the accident a couple car lengths away from the truck.
Nice. Truth is, there's not much in production (or near production) vehicles that hasn't been thought of elsewhere years/decades ago. I was part of a team making a hybrid Saturn SL2 in a College of engineering years before the first Prius hit the street. No biggie. :)
no_slushbox, Telegraph error? That's the first I've heard that one. The Wikipedia page you reference itself describes the history pretty succinctly: Humphrey Davy (who first isolated Al) named it first "alumium", then changed it to "aluminum" himself; it was only after his death that the Commonwealth started calling it "aluminium" to match up with some other element names (though not others), but by then the US spelling had solidified in usage here.