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While most Lotuses are bred to tear up the track, the company's newest racer is built to skate across ice and snow. The prototype Concept Ice Vehicle will scout for crevasses as it leads a caravan of explorers in the Moon-Regan Trans Antarctic Expedition.
Planned for November 2009, the journey aims to raise awareness of the impact of climate change, so the CIV's design specs required that it not spoil the southern continent's pristine atmosphere. To that end, Lotus converted a highly efficient BMW motorcycle engine to run on E85 bioethanol.
The 115-horsepower, two-cylinder motor spins the ultralight propeller fast enough for the CIV to glide over small gaps at a top speed of 84 mph, and the independent suspension (a Lotus specialty) helps the craft pull emergency slaloms around larger hazards. It shouldn't come to that: An onboard GPS-enhanced radar system will detect such voids well ahead of time, and the driver can radio the coordinates back to the rest of the crew — if he's not too busy busting out power-slides in the most badass snowmobile ever.
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Engine
Two-cylinder, 115-hp BMW power plant is oil-cooled and modified to run on bioethanol.
Suspension
Three skis are independently dampened with both coil springs and hydraulic shock absorbers.
Brake
Like a spring-loaded crampon, the brake snaps down and digs its teeth into the ground to stop.
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Lotus has built the extreme Concept Ice Vehicle (CIV) prototype to aid explorers in the Moon-Regan Trans Antarctic Expedition. In addition to being a pathfinder to larger six-wheeled Scientific Support Vehicles (SSC), the CIV will also serve as a test bed for use of E85 bioethanol in extreme cold.
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The Concept Ice Vehicle will act as a lead vehicle in the Moon-Regan Trans Antarctic Expedition scheduled for November 2009. The goal is to raise awareness of the impact of global climate change.
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An micro-cooled, 2-cylinder BMW motorcycle engine sends 115 HP to a tri-blade, mirco-light propeller mounted behind the driver cell. Because E85 fuel (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) won't atomize at temperatures below -15 degrees Celsius, the CIV's fuel tank wears a heated jacket.
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When you ski recreationally in normal conditions, the snow melts beneath you, easing the path forward. But when you're 10,000 feet above sea level in very dry conditions and exceptionally low temperatures, there is no liquefaction of snow beneath the ski, which causes unwanted friction.
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To ensure that the CIV could withstand the rigors of Antarctica, the shrinkage rate of every major component was calculated, and the entire machine was tested to -35°C in Lotus' cold chambers. In all, Lotus engineers went through eight different ski configurations and six outrigger designs during the development process.
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Lotus has over-engineered the single-passenger Concept Ice Vehicle to survive at -72 degrees Celsius and cover 3,000 treacherous miles across choppy frozen grounds 10,000 feet above sea level.
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Like Lotus' hardcore Elise sports car, the CIV uses a bonded aluminum structure and glass-fiber composites to keep weight down and maintain structural integrity. Three large skis, each mounted on independent suspension, have been specially designed to traverse Antarctica's jaw-rattling corrugations.
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The Concept Ice Vehicle will lead two six-wheel-drive Science Support Vehicles [SSV] from one icy Antarctic coast to another. An advanced GPS radar system allows CIV to spot dangerous crevasses in the ice ahead.
