What's all this about?

This is the Lotus Evija Fittipaldi, a limited-edition version of Lotus’ incredibly powerful 2,039hp electric hypercar. Built to mark 50 years since Lotus and its Brazilian driver, Emerson Fittipaldi won the F1 drivers’ and constructors’ championships in 1972 in the phenomenally successful Type 72 car, just eight examples will be made.

How does it differ from a normal Evija?

Mechanically, there’s practically no difference, so the changes that have gone into creating the Evija Fittipaldi are chiefly visual. There’s the black-and-gold colour scheme (more black with gold pinstriping) for starters, paying tribute to the old John Player Special livery which also made its debut 50 years ago this year on the Type 72. A hand-tinted plan view of the Type 72 is etched into the exposed carbon fibre roof, with decals on the active rear wing celebrating the Type 72’s race wins. Fittipaldi’s car bore the number eight for the 1972 season and the limited-edition Evija also features a number eight decal on its B-pillar. The whole package sits on a set of new “Type 72” wheels complete with anodized centre lock surrounds – red on the left side of the car and green on the right – as well as black and gold brake callipers.

Any changes to the interior?

That exterior colour scheme is carried through to the inside with black leather and gold stitching and gold finishes on the air vent surrounds, start button, pedals and rotary controller. The rotary dial on the floating central instrument panel has been made from recycled original Type 72 aluminium, meaning there’s an actual piece of Type 72 in every Evija Fittipaldi. To finish it all off, Emerson Fittipaldi’s signature is hand-stitched into the dashboard.

What's so special about the Type 72?

It was a particularly innovative design for one, employing many of Lotus’ cutting-edge ideas such as using the Cosworth DFV engine as a stressed part of the chassis and putting the radiators in side pods to allow for a more aerodynamic wedge shape. Despite being underdeveloped and despite one of Lotus’ drivers, Jochen Rindt being killed while driving it at Monza, the Type 72 scooped Lotus its fourth constructors’ championship in a row in 1970. The car still wasn’t achieving its full potential in 1971 and Fittipaldi only managed to scrape sixth in the drivers’ championship that year. 1972 was the big year for the Type 72 though.

How so?

The behind-the-scenes development work finally started to pay off and the Type 72 took Fittipaldi to his first of two drivers’ championships, with Fittipaldi and Australian driver David Walker netting another constructors’ championship for Lotus. The Type 72 represented the first outing for the now-iconic black and gold John Player Special cigarette livery, and Lotus would achieve another world championship with the Type 72 in 1973. Eight out of the nine Type 72s built survive, hence the number of Evija Fittipaldis being built.

How fast is the Evija again?

With all-wheel drive and 2,039hp, the Evija was never going to be a slowcoach. A 0-60mph time of less than three seconds is about par for the course for an electric hypercar, but if you’ve got a sufficiently lengthy runway, it’ll hit 186mph in an astonishing nine seconds or so.

How much for a Fittipaldi?

That’s something Lotus has not disclosed, but based on the pricing for the regular Evija (of which 130 are due to be built), the much rarer Fittipaldi edition almost certainly costs well in excess of £2 million.

David Mullen - 20 Oct 2022