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Lotus unveils new racing bike for British Olympics team

Lotus Engineering, the automotive consultancy and industrial design arm of the British performance car brand, has marked its return to competitive cycling with a sleek and lightweight new track bike that features novel fork, seat stays and handlebars. Developed in concert with Hope Technology, a British bike-components manufacturer, the bike is aimed at helping the Great Britain Cycling Team notch medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. For Lotus, the bike represents a return to cycling after a 25-year absence. It’s also a nod to the Lotus Type 108 bike Chris Boardman rode to a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and in the 1994 Tour de France, where he won the prologue time trial to take the yellow jersey. Hope/Lotus British Cycling View 10 Photos WeÂ’re not given any details about the bikeÂ’s technology or specs, except that the Hope-designed frame is made of high-modulus composites with fabric woven in the U.K. Lotus was responsible for the unique fork and seat stays, with each characterized by slim polished metal tubing and a wide-flaring hooping design when viewed straight on. The handlebars similarly feature a flattened profile across the crossbar. Not surprisingly, the bike underwent lots of wind-tunnel testing, both with and without riders, plus testing to maximize strength with minimal weight. Lotus also said it worked to improve stiffness and front end feel. Much of the design and development was done after the 2016 Olympics, when the UCI governing body made changes to the rules governing bike development. Lotus and Hope were supported by British engineering firm Renishaw. The bikeÂ’s design must be approved by the UCI and be ridden by the Great Britain Cycling Team during the 2019–2020 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup series by the end of this year in order to qualify to be ridden in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. TheyÂ’ll start riding it this weekend at the Minsk-Arena velodrome in Belarus, and November 8–10 in Glasgow, Scotland. ItÂ’ll also be displayed at the Rouler Classic event in London starting Friday and running through Sunday. Lotus Bicycle lotus engineering

Lotus drops Renault for Mercedes F1 engines

With only three manufacturers supplying engines in Formula One this season, the teams have been fairly evenly split: Ferrari, Sauber and Marussia use Ferrari engines; Mercedes, McLaren, Williams and Force India run on Mercedes power; Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Lotus and Caterham employ Renault power units. But one important team is reportedly preparing to ditch Renault and switch to Mercedes for next year.
That team is Lotus, an outfit which has fallen off its pace the past few seasons but which has still been a vital partner for Renault. That's because until a few seasons ago, the team based in Enstone, UK, was owned by Renault and bore the company's name. The operation was founded in 1981 as Toleman, was rechristened Benetton in 1986, bought by Renault 2000, taking the company's name in 2002, sold to its current owners Genii Capital 2009 and adopting the black and gold Lotus livery in 2011. As Benetton, it ran Ford engines until switching to Renault in 1995, sticking with the French outfit ever since, but that decades-long partnership - which meandered through Renault ownership and back out again - is now apparently drawing to a close.
The departure of Lotus as a customer team ought to allow Renault to focus instead on its increasing ties with Red Bull, which has taken the Enstone team's place as Renault's principal team. It could prove a smart move for the Lotus team as well, as the Mercedes engines have been outperforming the Renault units this season by an order of magnitude: not only is Mercedes far outpacing Red Bull at the top of the standings, but each of Mercedes' customer teams is performing better than Renault's clients.

This is how ground effects work in a nutshell

There are two ways to generate downforce. One is with all manner of wings and spoilers on the surface of the vehicle. The other is with ground effects. One you can clearly see, the other remains something of a hidden mystery. Fortunately, the good folks at Lotus and Goodwood are here to dumb it down for us non-engineer types. It's called Bernoulli's Principle, named after Swiss physicist Daniel Bernoulli who literally wrote the book on the subject way back in the 1700s. Countless engineers have spent their careers focused on its study and application, but the crux of the matter is that, as the speed of air (or other "fluid") increases, pressure decreases. Play with the air's increasing speed and decreasing pressure just right and you can generate downforce underneath the body of a car without significantly increasing drag as you would with surface spoilers. For evidence of how Bernoulli's Principle applies in practical terms, just look at the last Ferrari to pack a turbocharged V8 in the middle and the latest one. The F40 had a giant wing on the back, where the 488 GTB has none. But because the 488 uses underbody aerodynamics (or "ground effects"), it generates significantly more downforce than the winged F40 ever could, and at lower speeds. Ferrari, however, was not the first outfit to harness the power of ground effects. Lotus did with the legendary 79 that Mario Andretti drove to the world championship back in 1978. That was the genius of Colin Chapman, and to explain how it all works in layman's terms, our friends over at Goodwood Road & Racing brought in Colin's son Clive Chapman, head of Classic Team Lotus, to put together the video above. Related Video: