Lotus has possibly set a new record for trashing one of its own car in the shortest time possible, accelerating from zero to wrecked in under three seconds.

The British brand – which is now Chinese owned – debuted its £2million Evija X electric hypercar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Thursday afternoon.

But within yards of launching off the starting line, the driver veered into the straw bales and promptly obliterated the front-end of the one-of-a-kind 2,000 horsepower vehicle.

A one-off Lotus Evija X hypercar crashed just a few feet off the start line at Goodwood Festival of Speed yesterday

The £2m prototype veered head-on into the straw bales just seconds into its run on the up-hill course. The driver was luckily unharmed, but the front end of the car was mulch

The Evija X is the track version of the Evija production hypercar. It’s unclear what caused the crash but commentators believed it might have been a software fault with the all=electric car’s four motors

Spectators were rightfully expecting something extraordinary from the outrageous prototype Lotus EV, though not in the way it eventually transpired.

The Evija X was making its ‘dynamic debut’ at Goodwood House at the Chichester estate, which hosts the Festival of Speed annually, having recently set a new record elsewhere.

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Before [sort of] taking part in the first day of this year’s event, it had made headlines for clocking the fastest lap time around the Nürburgring for a ‘production car-chassis vehicle’.

It was so quick, in fact, that it is the third fastest overall time set at the treacherous German circuit, beaten only by the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo and Volkswagen ID.R full-blooded racing cars.

Based on the Lotus’ £2milion all-electric Evija road car, the ‘X’ track version – piloted by racing hero Dirk Müller – set a blistering lap time of 6 minutes and 24 seconds when circulating the fearsome Nordschleife.

But on Thursday it took 6 minutes and 21 second less than that to turn its front end into mulch.

The all-electric hypercar might now have the unwanted record for the quickest crash in the event’s history.

While the unnamed driver thankfully walked away unscathed, the one-off electric hypercar didn’t.

The Evija X had made headlines for setting the record at the Nordschleife for a vehicle with a chassis of a production car. The X tack version went round the treacherous German racetrack in 6 minutes and 24 seconds 

Ready, set, nowhere: The Lotus managed less than 3 seconds on the shootout before spinning out

It was all a smoke show, with a huge burnout on the start line before the car ended up in the bales

It’s unclear what caused the crash, but speculators suspect a software issue. 

The car can be seen to burnout in a cloud of smoke as it launched, only for the 2,000hp machine to immediately lose control and spear into the bales at trackside, well before it reached the first corner.

Lotus has yet to confirm the cause, or whether announcers were correct in thinking it was a faulty issue with the car’s four motors.  

The project car is said to be worth around $2.3million – or around £1.8 million – and although damage to the car was mainly broken carbon fibre, it’s unlikely Lotus will be able to rebuild the car to appear again at Goodwood over the course of the weekend.

If Lotus can repair the car for a second run, it has all the ingredients to battle for the fastest time ever.

The one-off hypercar boasts a 0 to 62mph time of under three seconds thanks to its enormous 2,011hp, 218mph (electronically limited) top speed and 1,704 Newton meters of torque could put it among the quickest cars to ever complete the famous hill climb.

Let’s hope it actually disappears into the distance if it can return for a second attempt.

Holy Hillclimb, Batman! This dinky Batmobile-looking electric car hurtled up Goodwood’s famous Hillclimb course in a new record time in 2022

The current fastest time at the Chichester House hill route is held by a radical British-built electric car.

The McMurtry Spéirling, a 200mph battery-powered single-seater that uses two fans to suck it to the road, posted a time of 39.08 seconds at the 1.16-mile route in 2022.

With former Formula One driver Max Chilton at the wheel, it beat the previous record time – held by a specially developed electric Volkswagen – by almost a second.

The dinky McMurtry, which has been likened to a shrunk-down Batmobile, measures in at 1.5 metres wide and 3.3 metres long – that’s smaller than a VW Up! city car.

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