► Similar to the Vomit Comet, but more… mockingBack in 1950 two German scientists, Fritz and Heinz Haber – brothers, in fact, who’d been brought to the US after the war – proposed a way of simulating weightlessness for astronaut training. The first ‘parabolic flight’ took place in 1951, flown by the legendary test pilot, Chuck Yeager.
I want this nickname because electric cars make me want to blow chunks. Yes, it’s easy to blame the driver, and in the case of the Porsche Taycan Turbo I hold my hand up. When you find yourself on a quiet back road in a high-performance EV fitted with launch control and you know you can catapult from zero to 62mph in under three seconds… well, it’s very hard to resist.
One of the things that makes the Eletre so good is the way the main controls are calibrated: the steering is direct and tactile in your hands; the brake feel is amazing; and the accelerator is much more like a petrol car’s than your average EV. Lotus says this was a deliberate decision, taken for the right reason – to make the car nicer to drive. Simple.