🤣 Wouldn't have it any other way! The way the front fenders buldge out of the completely flat hood is iconic. Never seen anything like it.

 

🤣 Wouldn't have it any other way! The way the front fenders buldge out of the completely flat hood is iconic. Never seen anything like it.

View attachment 1396719

It's in their DNA. That's what is always so sad about Lotus.

 

LOL, I actually love the hood design. It's a clever way to allow heat to exhaust...

 

It's a clever way to allow heat to exhaust...

Technically I agree. But it still looks like the hood was in a front-end collision. The way it just lays on top of the body panels over the headlights, etc. looks sloppy and poorly integrated. Like somebody got the drawings wrong but they just glued it on top anyway. I recognize I'm in the minority on this question, and the rest of the Emira body design is fantastic, but it's just so hard to accept that this hood was the best Lotus could do here.

 

All else equal, lateral airflow generates less downforce than the more upward flow from Lotus traditional hood outlets like on the Eliges and Evora. There's also an efficiency reduction asking the airflow to change direction in more than one axis.

Plus, if the airflow out of the Voldemort nostrils really does then enter the side intakes, is it really better to preheat the combustion air and engine bay air?

 

The airflow is not lateral; it enters the intake at the bottom of the bumper and exits at the top of the hood, flowing over the fenders. There is a change in potential energy.

 

The airflow is not lateral; it enters the intake at the bottom of the bumper and exits at the top of the hood, flowing over the fenders.

I'm talking about this airflow path:

Are you saying that these two paths (there's a second symmetrical one on the other side) do not pass through the cooling stack in the front end? Because if they do, and they then flow into the rear intakes as shown, that's pre-heated air going into the combustion and engine bay intakes.

Note that the Voldemort nostril airstreams are being asked to change directions in two axes: once (up), twice (outboard), and three times (back to aft). Every direction change adds backpressure, or (if you prefer) an increase in the car's effective Cd.

"Exits at the top of the hood" suggests that 100% of the cooling stack airflow is going over the windshield. If so, then the Voldemort nostrils are only flowing cool, ambient air? They'd still have the Cd hit, but at least they'd not be directing hot air into the engine and its compartment.

 

The main flow path is directly over the roof into the ductail. Not 100% of the flow, but the overwhelming majority of airflow entering the intake exits at the center of the base of the windshield, creating massive downforce. See attached images.

The outboard flow paths do get some volume of air but not much relative to the center and definitely not enough to have a noticeable impact on ambient temperature entering the intake. There is a Cd hit, yet that is the tradeoff for huge downforce and in this case, well worth the additional grip.

 

Thank you for the additional info!

Good thing they don't have an Exige style intake at the top of the windshield....

I wonder if there really is a net gain in downforce. That air would have to go somewhere, and they certainly don't want it going under the car, so it would likely be directed over the top regardless of the hood design.

 

There wouldn't be a net gain in downforce but by directing some amount of the airflow outboard from over the top, there is a more even distribution of downforce around the front end car and increased downforce over the front fenders and the sides.

The rear vents do the same at the rear corners. I think it's pretty cool how the bodywork directs the airflow over every panel.

 

I'd love to see an actual smoke visualization (not computer model) of the Emira. The hood bodywork is fantastic looking IMO, but I'd be curious how much washes over the fenders and around like the drawing versus what gets picked up by the flow over and through the hood from that ducting and kicked up over the roof. Air gets real sticky (especially at high speed and humidity) and doesn't always take the obvious path.

It always makes me laugh when huge spoilers, canards, splitters, etc get attached to cars people run around town. You've got to really push air to develop significant downforce (i.e. above typical highway speeds). The lovely streamlined design of these cars is just that, redirecting the air around helps cut through and reduce drag and any downforce is just a bonus. If you're going to slip through the air column you may as well toss it over the car and get a little benefit!

 

Unfortunately, its all lost around the lounge chair seats.................

 

Seems the crunched hood/nostril look is catching on; Lexus concept cars at the Quail featured a few of their potential designs:

Seems the Emira (and less so the Evija) were the trend setters.

 

They just had to copy our signature! Can't blame them though looks damn good, especially with the flying buttress. Who will follow in Emira's footsteps next?

Seems the crunched hood/nostril look is catching on; Lexus concept cars at the Quail featured a few of their potential designs:

View attachment 1397087

Seems the Emira (and less so the Evija) were the trend setters.

 

Granted, Lotus has been a trendsetter many times in the past.

But then, disco and avocado kitchen appliances were "the thing" at one time too! 😈

Edit: I must say that, in the above photo, Lexus did a much better job of hood integration. The Emira hood just looks "dropped on top" of the car, with the way the front portion lays over the area near the headlights. That's part of the problem with the Emira hood IMHO... it's not just the Voldemort nostrils, it's the whole "last minute rush" look of its integration into the rest of the body. Again, my $0.02 and I know I'm in the minority. But I'll be keeping my Evora GT.

 

Evija is also like this