Previously, I tweeted that the Lynk & Co Z10 is a very enjoyable car to drive, and I encouraged everyone to have confidence in it. Then, there were rumors that I was involved in the tuning of this model. Let me clarify, no, no, no, I just drove it a few times during the R&D phase and had some in-depth conversations with the chassis engineers. So, I understand some of the car's dynamics and am just sharing some casual chat with everyone.

Based on the SEA architecture, all the basic settings were clearly planned by Kent from the beginning. Kent is an architecture mastermind who, in his early years, developed a series of platforms at Saab and later at Volvo, where he successively developed SPA, CMA, and the SEA architecture, among others. He even made bold changes to the SOA architecture for the LEVC L380 based on the SEA architecture.

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His architectural skills are indeed very high, which is why Geely Group often says, "There are no weak cars under the vast sea."

With this, the early development of the Lynk & Co Z10 progressed quickly, as it was not the first car of the architecture. The 800V version of the Lynk & Co Z10 this time comes with a new 310kW motor, which is also a new generation product from WeiRui, and is equipped under the group with the Zeekr 007 and the new Zeekr 001.

When I saw the prototype, it was already the end of 2023, in Heihe. In the test field at minus 40 degrees Celsius, the Lynk & Co 07 was still undergoing its final winter tests. That day, Lynk & Co also invited two Key Opinion Customers (KOCs), both owners of Lynk & Co cars. The male customer had bought many Lynk & Co vehicles, including the Lynk & Co 03+; the female customer had an even more interesting story. Although still a student, she began to play with modified cars and racing cars under the guidance of Lynk & Co and is also an owner of the Lynk & Co 03+.

Since it was still a prototype, the entire chassis tuning work had not yet begun, including the electronic and power systems, which were using data from older models. Generally, the first step in winter testing is to adjust the power system to a drivable state, then determine the basic parameters of the chassis, and run a car that has not yet been equipped with chassis electronic control software on icy and snowy roads to achieve a reasonable vehicle posture.

However, since it is not the first car of the architecture, the vehicle's software is already quite complete. So, I simply proposed to drive it myself – which is the reason I later tweeted that this car is easy to drive and asked everyone to have confidence.

Even in this state, the car has already shown very strong chassis capabilities. The software applied inevitably has some bugs, but we can still perform very beautiful drifting maneuvers on the snow.In fact, at this point, the drifting mainly depends on the inherent capabilities of the vehicle's chassis, and has little to do with the electronic systems. When Kent was working on this architecture, he defined a broad style, so that essentially all cars under the Haohan architecture can achieve very good communication between the car and the driver, as well as a decent driving texture. Therefore, that day I embarked on a drifting journey with two KOCs.

To be honest, there were some tests during that winter test, such as air conditioning cooling and heating, battery insulation, and range under extremely low temperatures, which were all a bit dull. The truly fun thing was only drifting.

What I never expected was that the drifting would make this girl almost cry.

I was wondering in my heart, was she scared or just cold? As a result, she told me that she is a fan of Lynk & Co's performance, and in her mind, Lynk & Co represents cars with exceptional driving capabilities, like a hot hatch. She thought that Lynk & Co's venture into electric vehicles was just to make some money and allow the brand to enter the next stage. However, what she didn't expect was that this car still provided the Lynk & Co style of driving pleasure. Lynk & Co has never had rear-wheel drive, so their driving has always followed the track logic of front-wheel drive cars. But now, with the rear-wheel drive Lynk & Co Z10, it is a high-horsepower rear-wheel drive car with full control fun — in the car enthusiast circle, there is a huge difference between front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive.

Of course, we have only seen a good foundation, and this is the significance of winter testing: on an ice surface with μ equal to 0.1, and a snow surface with μ equal to 0.3, low adhesion will amplify the vehicle's dynamics, so here, engineers take advantage of the unique conditions to find the absolute state of a car at low speeds.

If a car can pass the ice surface, it basically means that its limits have been set.

That day, I met Xue Yue. Xue Yue is a newcomer to Lynk & Co; he has previously tuned several cars that are enjoyable to drive, one of which is the Polestar 4, which has been collectively praised by car reviewers. This car, like the Lynk & Co Z10, comes from the Haohan architecture, so he is quite familiar with it.

The overall feel that Polestar 4 has tuned out is very strong, with a high-rigidity body and a very aggressive CDC. This CDC even uses ZF's built-in valve, which is the same as Porsche's, and it is quite difficult to tune, but he did solve this problem.

The two of us chatted on the ice, and I believe that this car should offer more control scales, especially in Kent's style where each car's yaw is controlled quite tightly, and there is too much of a track car feeling. We need to find a way to offer more control scales.

Later, the car completed the relevant tuning on high-adhesion road surfaces in Yancheng, followed by rounds of reviews and a large amount of road testing. In this process, what is more important is to match the corresponding tires, shock absorbers, springs, anti-roll bars, and bushings, to select one set from hundreds of options and then make fine adjustments.Of course, the more complex work here comes from the CDC and air springs. Tenneco's CDC system is actually integrated into the vast architecture. The vast architecture is different from many platforms in that it is a highly electrified architecture. Even large manufacturers like ZF have integrated their software into the vast computing platform. Therefore, various international giants have gradually become software suppliers or suppliers of hardware actuators.

The steering choice is Nexteer, the CDC is chosen from Tenneco, and the brake caliper is from the German Continental. Instead of using Brembo's calipers, they have used Brembo's brake discs.

The last time I saw him was at the test track in Shangrao, which is a professional test track built by Geely Group and CCCC with an investment of 2 billion. Let's share some specific feelings with everyone:

The high ring of this test track is very new, and the outermost ring starts at a speed of 240. That is to say, it is necessary to drive this car at a higher speed, otherwise it will not be able to stay on this road. We ran at a speed of 252 km/h on the ring, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed at the time.

Later, the engineer told me that they locked the car speed at 250 km/h because they felt there was no need to make a higher speed. The strangest thing is that we also achieved a speed of 250 km/h with the single motor 200kW version.

In fact, this requirement is still very high, and it exists in at least the following points:

1. The motor must be able to withstand long-term full power operation. When the current creates magnetic force, it also generates a large amount of heat between the copper wires. According to the formula Q=I^2Rt, heat quickly accumulates. Generally speaking, many motors will enter a thermal protection state, which requires strong oil cooling technology to complete the spray cooling.

2. The battery also performs high-power discharge operations, and the temperature on that day has already reached 52°C, which is almost the upper limit.

3. This newly built venue has not yet been fully accepted. At such high speeds, the chassis needs to withstand the test of ultra-high speed.

4. Another point is from air resistance.In addition to high-speed ring tests, the acceleration and braking tests from 0 to 100 km/h and from 100 km/h to 0 are also crucial. Just like full-power operation on the high-speed ring, acceleration tests require the motor to be tested repeatedly at full power, resulting in significant heat generation. Unlike in extreme cold conditions, there is no rapid air circulation here, making heat dissipation more problematic. All the heat is concentrated on the motor; how to carry out effective thermal management?

On this day, Lynk & Co. also borrowed a Porsche Taycan, albeit a single-motor version. There is no need for a harsh comparison in terms of numbers. When these two cars are placed together, it actually reveals the development path of Chinese electric motors.

Porsche's solution is to use a 16,000-RPM motor, coupled with a two-speed gearbox, with the first gear for quick acceleration and the second gear for maintaining high speeds. However, Lynk & Co.'s approach is similar to Tesla's; it locks the motor at 18,000 RPM without pushing for higher speeds, allegedly leaving enough margin, but it does not have a gearbox. Therefore, this competition is more like a contest of strategies.

For the braking test, the focus was not entirely on the numbers this time, but on ten consecutive brakings without significant heat fade, which has also been a point of concern following recent racing incidents. The combination of Continental calipers and Brembo brake discs seems a bit reversed, but the actual effect is that they withstood the continuous high-temperature braking test.

Ultimately, I met with the moose test and Xue Yue again. After half a year, the car has been tuned, and I would like to share a few impressions with everyone:

1. First of all, it maintains the integrity of the SEA architecture. The characteristic of this architecture is its strong texture, allowing the car to be driven very fast, including the moose test results. It feels like the texture of the car body this time will be lighter than other models under the same architecture.

2. It's unclear whether Kent defined Volvo or Volvo constrained Kent, but many cars under the SEA architecture do not provide a large body roll angle. Once a posture is initiated, it will be pulled back. The angle given by the Lynk & Co. Z10 this time is quite large, and the dynamic feel provided by the damping and springs is very sufficient, not entirely the feeling of a track car.

3. It can drift.

Finally, we concluded the test on a section of cobblestone and Belgian block road, verifying a question for everyone: Is this car so desperate for sportiness that it has created an uncomfortable car regardless of everything else?

The answer is, no, it is not. For daily commutes, the driving experience is quite good.That's about all the information points I can share, I believe that by August we should be able to see the final version of the car, and then everyone can come back and chat about it!