Air Dream Performance initial thoughts

[mikecronis]

I'm lucky and fortunate enough to purchase a Lucid Air Dream Performance (#234) and here are my initial thoughts. As a frame of reference, I've owned several moderately sporty cars and luxury-y sedans over the years, so I can compare them to those. My list of owned cars in my lifetime are (I've tracked a few of these):

1980 Oldsmobile Omega
1988 Ford Tempo GLX
1981 Chrysler Cordoba
1990 Saab 900
1991 Honda Civic EX
1991 Nissan Pulsar NX SE
1989 Honda Prelude Si (JDM)
1999 Pontiac Sunfire GT
1998 Pontiac Firebird
1999 Pontiac Firehawk (SLP)
1999 Nissan Sentra GXE (B14)
2006 Lotus Elise
2008 Saturn Sky Redline
2012 Corvette Grand Sport (M6 / Supercharged)
2009 Pontiac Solstice (Mallett V8)
2014 Cadillac ELR
2018 Cadillac CT6 Platinum

Motorcycles:
1997 Suzuki Katana
2002 Ninja 250
2004 Ninja 500
2005 Honda Superhawk VTR 1000
2008 Ninja 250-R
2012 Honda 600RR
2015 Honda Interceptor VTEC
2019 Yamaha YZF-R3

So.. Doug Demuro, Throttle House, and SavageGeese review the Lucid Air with rave reviews, and Jay Leno gave sincere praise with CEO Peter Rawlinson (who seems like a really nice guy, honestly). They fussed about some bugs and issues, which, in my opinion, have been primarily sorted-out amazingly through software updates (!)

• Acceleration
  In "Smooth" mode, early-on it is quick, like Corvette / Firehawk quick. Being here in Colorado highlights the 18% ICE power-loss further (the blown Corvette I still own is a bit less loss due to the forced-air induction) After about 30 mph it is motorcycle-quick, like as fast as my Superhawk. In Sprint-Mode.. faster. Impossibly faster! Concerningly faster at 5200 pounds. They say the "fun factor" of a car power-to-weight ratio is 10::1 such that a 3000 pound car should have 300 Hp (to be fun). I can agree with this. The Firehawk I owned was 3200 pounds and 325 Hp. It was fun. The Lotus Elise was 1980 pounds and 190 Hp. Again, fun. CT6 Cadillac is 4130 pounds at 404 Hp. Has AWD/AWS, so yes, despite being a limo-looking beast.. fun. Now the Corvette I have has been modified with the ZR1 Supercharger and internals (for sale, btw) so it's 3380 pounds but 635 Hp. A bit too fast and scary-fun. Solstice Mallett V8 was 3094 pounds at 400 Hp (LS2) and so scary but fun. The Dream Performance is 1111 Hp... um.. so just.. scary-fun-scary-fast. The rate of acceleration WOT of my sportbikes were not as fast! Acceleration is world-class hypercar.
  Now, you grow into acceleration as it were. I remember the Superhawk was too fast (at first) as well as the Corvette after installing the SC. You.. grow into it like adding tons of compression and distortion to your electric guitar signal; it's unruly at first, but you learn to articulate it. I'm learning the car, but the first 30 days The goddess of Entropy wants to scratch, ding, or dent your car for some reason, so I'm being extra careful.
  The Sprint Mode is another-world fast.. and somehow controlled. The software that regulates wheel-spin is perfect so far; impressively so. Truly a lot of passion was put into that effort. As the band Rush would say, "Super Science". It was not an afterthought. It was especially crafted and deliberate calibration, and as a scientist myself, I'm impressed.
• Handling
  Okay, wow. I wasn't expecting this. It handles .. well; quite well. Impressively well and direct. Lateral-G forces are on-par with my Lotus Elise. Numbers indicate this is correct after I checked. Thankfully, the Dwarven engineers were kind enough to offer me adjustable lateral bolstering in the seats. Turn-in is impossibly quick. I expected to feel the weight of the car being a plow-through experience of fatness and.. no. Even pushed to 7/10ths it is compliant. I suspect at her limits she'll be front-heavy a bit, but I also notice the engineers seems to have compensated for that because otherwise it'd be far more noticeable. Bilsteins and steel springs were well chosen. Suspension is on-par with the Chuck Mallett Solstice. Braking is sublime as well; an engineering marvel. Well-chosen pads and callipers. No fade noted, though probably at its limits over time there may be fade, perhaps. Impressively well-chosen. High craftsmanship. Honda mechanical engineering quality from the 1990s. Road feel is excellent and bumps are swallowed-up without harshness. I mean, the Lotus Elise and Corvette feel like hammer-on-glass but the Lucid still handles THE SAME! Compromises were not made over cost for quality, only engineering "correctness" with margins added. Wow.
• Comfort
  Quite decent comfort. For a sports-car, sublime. For a luxury car, on-par with American excellence. Picking nits, a peg below European extreme standards.. maybe.. some of the highest trim Germanic offerings are maybe a bit better. My CT6 massage seats, comfort, and leather is better by a few notches, but compared a Lyriq, CT5, or CT4 the Lucid is superior. The CT6 Platinum was a throwback to the 1970s for swank and is an unusual hold-out. Rear seats are a bit stiff. The "ceramic" white carpets are quite pleasant. Seating positions are a bit high in the lowest position for the front but good. Visibility is very good with a few blind spots. All-glass roofs are.. an acquired taste. Luckily, my Firehawk had glass T-Tops and my Corvette has the glass-roof option so it's.. okay. I think some people love it. The "Air" has to give an "airy" feel, right? Suits the car. The sitting experience is amazingly pleasant; I don't want to leave it. I've never felt that way about any car ever. It's soothing to be there. It's nurturingly nice. It's not "ultra-plush" but it is actually "plush" and swank like "modern swank". I had been in the Tesla and found the fake materials to be not nice and the layout to be poor and tacked-on. Lucid's arrangement and positioning is intelligently thought-out and perfect.
  My overall impression is comfort falls within the zone of "Excellent".
• Features & Software
  A lot of effort went into this, I can tell. Initially, the bass response was non-existent, then I reset the Infotainment and it improved but the front woofers clipped. I charged-up the car and when I came back to it, the clipping was gone and the bass response was smoothed-out. At some point the car "did things" as the tablet had the start-up screen and was frozen there for about 20 minutes. After this, bass is working nicely (somehow) and sound quality is vastly improved. Not sure how that happened. Not sure if I need the TSB tape-fix, but I'll ask.
  The App is good and responsive. The fob people complain about I've had zero issues.. maybe a 5 second delay once or twice. I have no complaints.
  I notice to go into Reverse initially from Park (I nose-in to my garage) the "R" is to-the-right for letters PRND, so you'd think to push the shift-lever downwards to go "to the right" but instead you move the shift lever upwards away "to the left" from P. Up-to-the-left to go to R? When you're in Drive "D" then again, up-to-the-left to go to "R" which is more-intuitive. I wish the R was to the left of the letter P.
  Lighting is good, especially that sweet ambient light. I wish the overhead thin light was a little brighter, maybe. The Airbag and Hazard lights are very bright (some guys on the forum recommended some tint with good effect over these for night driving). My rear-view mirror doesn't dim at night with headlights behind me, but Fuse #21 under the footwell at 5A might be the key. If not, I'll call Service. Small issue, really. Sometimes you can calibrate the sensor.
  Tablet design is well lain-out. Interesting "throwing" the upper screen down to the tablet for more options. Switching stations within the media source is a bit tricky if it's not currently being displayed anywhere. Pause makes up nicely for a MUTE feature on the right-hand-steering toggle. I wish a LONG-PRESS of the NEXT/PREVIOUS steering-wheel buttons changed favorites on Sirius XM and TIDAL so I don't have to hunt for them in the menus while driving, which require me to expand the source on the upper screen and if the presets are not shown, throw it downwards to the larger screen, then select. Concerning distraction a bit.
  Navigation works exceptionally well. Looking forward to Android Auto. I can't get the USB to register with the port. I've formatted in FAT, FAT32, and FATex, tried FLAC (all bitrates) and MP3 (320kbps) and I get the 10% loading then "Please make sure you formatted your USB Flash Drive correctly" message. I've formatted using the forum's FAT32 (UK programmer) version as well. I've tried using smaller than 32Gb sticks. I'm buying a proprietary USB 32Gb FAT32 preformatted stick to see if it works. Fingers crossed! Hm.. I haven't tried raw WAV files yet..
  Overall, the Lucid gets an "A" because they fixed everything with OTA updates which is mind-bogglingly good.
• Audio
  I'm considering adding a very small subwoofer, or replacing the center-rear-subwoofer with a lower frequency range one.. not sure. Maybe. The 2.50 update addressed the bass issue, which then clipped, then after a few days fixed itself, which is odd. Sound-staging in the Surreal Sound Pro is.. okay enough. I wouldn't mind upgrading all the speakers. Lucid could possibly offer that as a service for some FOCAL brand for higher articulation of frequency response levels? I'd adore that. Some audiophile option retrofit provided by Lucid for us tone-hound nutjobs like myself. I have a Bose Panaray 34 speaker setup in my CT6 that has some better low-frequency and tweeter response. I'd love some KEF 3-5Hz subs and some super-tweeters in there even though it's digital audio. I also wouldn't mind some 12AX7 tubes in the amp throughput to warm it up. Audio is acceptable after the update. It seems so far inconsistent for me for some reason; time will tell. It is not "lavish" but it is "good" now. There is room for improvement. I'm afraid if a 3rd party did a speaker swap all-around if they'd get all the trim to fit right as currently I have no squeaks or rattles anywhere. I'd rather Lucid have an option and do it, because I trust them.
• Overall
  This is an excellent car. You can tell this vehicle was made with heart; an engineer's heart, but heart none-the-less, like if Tolkien Dwarves made the car, as opposed to Elves or Hobbits. Dwarven love and passion and feeling and excellence. People put a lot of soul and personality into it. It's not an appliance like the Tesla. There is road feel and handling. There is American attitude with it. It feels very modern and futuristic. I believe it was made with the highest knowledge of automotive engineering at the time of its creation. Rumor has it a Lotus engineer helped with the suspension and I agree. It has (to me) Lotus-like suspension. It has supercar acceleration. It has vintage Cadillac-style comfort. It has Tesla-like technology. It has "all the things'. It's an all-rounder car. It does everything all at once. Amazing. It is the best car in the world, hands-down. Bar none. I've known none better. It is capable of anything and everything. It is the dream car I didn't know I needed or wanted. It is the Macallan 30 scotch of cars. Thank you Lucid.

 

[borski]

You and I have very similar tastes. The Elise was my favorite car I’ve ever owned, until this one.

It may be well worth noting that Peter R designed the Elise; it started as a hobby car in his garage, until it eventually became the Lotus Elise. So it would make sense that the dynamics would feel… somehow similar despite the cars being not even remotely similar.

I would wait on the sound; they are actively improving it. See how it does over the next couple updates.

I’m DE #241, not far from your build.

 

[chazglenn3]

Excellent write up!

 

[borski]

@mikecronis Aside, if you'd like, your forum profile has a field for DE #

 

[mikecronis]

I would love to meet and subsequently gush over Peter for his brilliance. I think he is not praised enough. He's like the Paco de Lucia of cars; brilliant and under-appreciated. It's my opinion he may have changed the automotive world more so than Elon and the world doesn't quite know it yet. When people start buying 2nd hand versions of the Air and it becomes more financially viable, the word will spread.

@mikecronis Aside, if you'd like, your forum profile has a field for DE #

 

[borski]

I would love to meet and subsequently gush over Peter for his brilliance. I think he is not praised enough. He's like the Paco de Lucia of cars; brilliant and under-appreciated. It's my opinion he may have changed the automotive world more so than Elon and the world doesn't quite know it yet. When people start buying 2nd hand versions of the Air and it becomes more financially viable, the word will spread.

I could not agree more. Elon did a lot to make EVs acceptable to the average consumer. Peter has done more for cars in general, imho, and his foray into EVs is just beginning.

I'm in CO often enough (my wife used to live in Glenwood Springs and I have friends there), and if you're ever in northern CA, feel free to shoot me a DM!