First, this is going to be quite long so feel free to skim or jump to any section you're more interested in.
Second, I've also taken my car to autocross and that post is here.
Based on my research, it looks like only one other person has posted anything about taking an Air to a track, otherwise nobody else has posted anything about taking an Air to autocross or to a race track (other than the Sapphire for like Car and Driver Lightning Lap), so I want to post about my experience.
Intro: I went to I29 Speedway (formerly RPM (Raceway Park of the Midlands) formerly MAM (Mid America Motorplex)) in Pacific Junction, IA. It's 2.23 miles long and a pretty simple, very safe track that I've been to a couple times before in a 2015 BMW M4 convertible, so I knew this would be a decent place to take the Air. It also has a straight almost a half mile long.
As I've been here with my M4 before, I'll do a few comparisons between the two cars. Here's a quick summary of the two cars:
It's easy to see from the chart above the Air: 1) weighs more, 2) has narrower tires, 3) has tires with considerably less grip
In addition, I put brake pads on my M4 that are specifically for track days. I made no modifications at all to the Air.
This track has some specific HPDE (high performance drivers education) events, but those are more structured in "sessions" where each driver has specific times they are allowed on the track, which may look something like this:
Sometimes, there are only 2 or 3 groups, but either way, this generally limits a driver to about 20 minutes on the track and 40 minutes off. I knew this style wouldn't work well for having to leave and charge (charger 20 minutes away).
This specific event I ran was a "Super Sunday" which was only for experienced drivers and there were no sessions; the track was hot from 10a-noon and again from 1p-4p. This allowed me to drive as much as I want, take breaks whenever, go and charge, and just come back and go straight back on the track.
Weather: Hot and humid. It's been so dang hot lately. It rained in the morning to make it even more humid, too. Started the day off mid 70s and mostly cloudy, quickly rose to the 90s and sun.
Schedule: I needed to be at the track around 9:15 so I got charged up to 91% (what time allowed after my 3.5 hour drive to the charger) then headed to the track (18 miles away). First entered the track right at 10a, did 3 laps, then short break, 4 laps, short break, 6 laps, short break, 5 laps, charge, 5 laps, break, 3 laps, short break, 3 laps, done.
First laps: The first three laps were pretty slow, just to get a feel for the car and heat up the tires a bit. I initially left the tires at the stock 50psi, and chalked a few places on the tires to keep an eye on how much they were rolling over. I knew I would have to let air out as they heated up. First few laps were 2:30 down to 2:17 (my M4 can do about 1:49). After these three, I exited the track to check the tires and remove some air. During this point, the car had the fans on to (I think) cool the battery/motors. Much to my surprise, by the time I was done letting air out of my tires, the fans had already shut off. I assume this means the car thinks the batteries/motors are back to a normal operating temperature.
Next laps: Went back out for four more pretty easy laps (2:25 down to 2:12). Jumped quick off the track just to let more air out and went back on.
First faster laps: Finally pushed the car a bit harder, braked later, harder in the corners and got down to 2:04, only 15 seconds slower than the M4. In addition, the M4 can hit about 133 on the main straight and I hit 129 during these laps before going hard on the brakes. Did a couple more hard laps, then a nice slow cool down lap before exiting the track for a few minutes. The fans again turned off before I went back on the track.
Pushing it: Next laps: 2:03, 2:00.121 (so close!), then a much slower lap as I let a few cars pass, then two more laps between 2:00 and 2:01. The last lap brought me down to 12% battery. I let the car cool a bit, ate a little food, then drove over to EA.
Charging: Left the track at 11%, arrived at 4% to a full EA. Waited several minutes then was able to plug in a 350kW charger at 3%. Charged as expected. Hit 262kW at 5% then quickly dropped because of the very safe(?) Lucid charging curve. I roamed around Walmart while the car charged from 3% to 81% in 39 minutes.
Back to the track!: Two slow laps to warm up the tires, then 3 hard laps, 2 of which were sub 2 minutes, best was 1:59.072. Woo! Took like a 10 minute break before heading back out.
Let's really push: 3 laps, best was 1:58.109. Small break while I decided if I wanted to go charge and come back for several more laps, or just go really hard for 3 more laps and leave. Decided to just do 3 more. 1:57.141 and 1:56.426! During the third lap, I got down to 11% charge and either power was slightly limited or I had a really bad couple of corners, so I laid off near the end of the lap.
Final times: Air best lap: 1:56.426. M4 best lap: 1:49.136, only 7 seconds faster. Which is pretty crazy to think about considering how much better the grip is on the M4.
Stat comparisons: Using the TrackAddict app, the top speed for the M4 best lap is 131 while the top speed for the Air best lap is 128. (I did hit a GPS top speed of 131, but my fastest laps all had top speeds of 128, probably due to braking earlier to hit the apex properly). Additionally, the M4 top lateral Gs is around 1.5 while the Air barely eclipsed 1.0 (1.07 is the highest, with 1.02 on fastest lap). I'm thinking the Air is probably faster from ~0-100ish while the M4 is faster after that, and of course faster in the corners.
Other notes:
Tire wear: I don't have a specific tire tread caliper, but I do have a regular caliper so I measured my tread in three different main grooves on all four tires immediately before my first lap and immediately after my last. On average, I lost ~1/32 from each tire. The track doesn't have a great surface, and is very hard on the left front, so the outside shoulder of that tire is ummm not in the same condition it was. This isn't a great picture but shows the chunks coming off from the shoulder.
Efficiency: Here's a big one. During the warm up laps, I would get ~0.9 mi/kWh. During the hard laps, that would drop to 0.5 mi/kWh. A/C was off while driving with both front windows down. My lifetime efficiency with 18k miles is ~3.3 so I got about 1/7th of my normal efficiency.
My M4 gets ~22 mpg in normal mixed driving (~27 on a highway) but only 6-8 mpg during track or autocross events. So it gets 1/3rd to a 1/4th while driving hard while the Air got 1/7th.
From my first lap to my last (including driving to and from the charger at lunch), I used a total of 125 kWh to travel 119.2 miles.
Summary: Fast car that's hampered by lack of traction. Of course, this is not what the car is made to do, and it actually performed better than I expected. I was initially hoping to get around 2:05 - 2:10 based on my M4's times. To only be 7 seconds short is pretty crazy. Just putting on some summer tires would help considerably. Unfortunately, the rims are only 8" so I wouldn't be able to get wider tires with these same rims. That said, I don't know if I actually plan to take this car to the track again, so stickier wider tires would only hurt efficiency.
Wish list (?): It would be great to see tire temps. My M4 shows tire pressure and tire temps which is helpful is cases like this.
Track mode. Some Teslas have a track mode that shows various things like lap times and G-meter and has more detailed settings. Also can record laps using the built in cameras. I think the Taycan has something similar and I'm sure the Ioniq 5 N does as well.
Battery health/temps. Track mode has this but I'm pretty sure some other EVs show info like this as well. (this is the only one I could foresee Lucid ever adding)
I'm sure there's stuff I'm missing so feel free to ask any questions!
Second, I've also taken my car to autocross and that post is here.
Based on my research, it looks like only one other person has posted anything about taking an Air to a track, otherwise nobody else has posted anything about taking an Air to autocross or to a race track (other than the Sapphire for like Car and Driver Lightning Lap), so I want to post about my experience.
Intro: I went to I29 Speedway (formerly RPM (Raceway Park of the Midlands) formerly MAM (Mid America Motorplex)) in Pacific Junction, IA. It's 2.23 miles long and a pretty simple, very safe track that I've been to a couple times before in a 2015 BMW M4 convertible, so I knew this would be a decent place to take the Air. It also has a straight almost a half mile long.
As I've been here with my M4 before, I'll do a few comparisons between the two cars. Here's a quick summary of the two cars:
| Car | 2023 Lucid Air Pure AWD | 2015 BMW M4 Convertible |
| HP | 480 | 430 |
| Curb Weight | ~5,000 | ~4,000 |
| Tire Size | 245/45R19 | 265/35ZR-19 front, 285/35ZR-19 rear |
| Tire Type | Pirelli P Zero AS Plus Elect (500 treadwear) | Michelin Pilot Sport 4S (Max Performance Summer) (300 treadwear) |
| Drive type | AWD | RWD |
It's easy to see from the chart above the Air: 1) weighs more, 2) has narrower tires, 3) has tires with considerably less grip
In addition, I put brake pads on my M4 that are specifically for track days. I made no modifications at all to the Air.
This track has some specific HPDE (high performance drivers education) events, but those are more structured in "sessions" where each driver has specific times they are allowed on the track, which may look something like this:
Sometimes, there are only 2 or 3 groups, but either way, this generally limits a driver to about 20 minutes on the track and 40 minutes off. I knew this style wouldn't work well for having to leave and charge (charger 20 minutes away).
This specific event I ran was a "Super Sunday" which was only for experienced drivers and there were no sessions; the track was hot from 10a-noon and again from 1p-4p. This allowed me to drive as much as I want, take breaks whenever, go and charge, and just come back and go straight back on the track.
Weather: Hot and humid. It's been so dang hot lately. It rained in the morning to make it even more humid, too. Started the day off mid 70s and mostly cloudy, quickly rose to the 90s and sun.
Schedule: I needed to be at the track around 9:15 so I got charged up to 91% (what time allowed after my 3.5 hour drive to the charger) then headed to the track (18 miles away). First entered the track right at 10a, did 3 laps, then short break, 4 laps, short break, 6 laps, short break, 5 laps, charge, 5 laps, break, 3 laps, short break, 3 laps, done.
First laps: The first three laps were pretty slow, just to get a feel for the car and heat up the tires a bit. I initially left the tires at the stock 50psi, and chalked a few places on the tires to keep an eye on how much they were rolling over. I knew I would have to let air out as they heated up. First few laps were 2:30 down to 2:17 (my M4 can do about 1:49). After these three, I exited the track to check the tires and remove some air. During this point, the car had the fans on to (I think) cool the battery/motors. Much to my surprise, by the time I was done letting air out of my tires, the fans had already shut off. I assume this means the car thinks the batteries/motors are back to a normal operating temperature.
Next laps: Went back out for four more pretty easy laps (2:25 down to 2:12). Jumped quick off the track just to let more air out and went back on.
First faster laps: Finally pushed the car a bit harder, braked later, harder in the corners and got down to 2:04, only 15 seconds slower than the M4. In addition, the M4 can hit about 133 on the main straight and I hit 129 during these laps before going hard on the brakes. Did a couple more hard laps, then a nice slow cool down lap before exiting the track for a few minutes. The fans again turned off before I went back on the track.
Pushing it: Next laps: 2:03, 2:00.121 (so close!), then a much slower lap as I let a few cars pass, then two more laps between 2:00 and 2:01. The last lap brought me down to 12% battery. I let the car cool a bit, ate a little food, then drove over to EA.
Charging: Left the track at 11%, arrived at 4% to a full EA. Waited several minutes then was able to plug in a 350kW charger at 3%. Charged as expected. Hit 262kW at 5% then quickly dropped because of the very safe(?) Lucid charging curve. I roamed around Walmart while the car charged from 3% to 81% in 39 minutes.
Back to the track!: Two slow laps to warm up the tires, then 3 hard laps, 2 of which were sub 2 minutes, best was 1:59.072. Woo! Took like a 10 minute break before heading back out.
Let's really push: 3 laps, best was 1:58.109. Small break while I decided if I wanted to go charge and come back for several more laps, or just go really hard for 3 more laps and leave. Decided to just do 3 more. 1:57.141 and 1:56.426! During the third lap, I got down to 11% charge and either power was slightly limited or I had a really bad couple of corners, so I laid off near the end of the lap.
Final times: Air best lap: 1:56.426. M4 best lap: 1:49.136, only 7 seconds faster. Which is pretty crazy to think about considering how much better the grip is on the M4.
Stat comparisons: Using the TrackAddict app, the top speed for the M4 best lap is 131 while the top speed for the Air best lap is 128. (I did hit a GPS top speed of 131, but my fastest laps all had top speeds of 128, probably due to braking earlier to hit the apex properly). Additionally, the M4 top lateral Gs is around 1.5 while the Air barely eclipsed 1.0 (1.07 is the highest, with 1.02 on fastest lap). I'm thinking the Air is probably faster from ~0-100ish while the M4 is faster after that, and of course faster in the corners.
Other notes:
- I tried to keep the tire pressures around 46psi.
- I kept regenerative braking on high and it's crazy how much that slows the car from 100+ plus on the "easier" laps.
- I started with stability control on full, switched to partial, and later to off. Didn't seem to make a ton of difference but there were certain points I could feel it. In general, I was "easy" on the throttle to not oversteer too much, though.
- When I arrived at the track, I removed the aero caps from the wheels. I figured this would help with ventilation and cooling. When I released air from the tires, the air coming from the fronts was very hot. I put the caps back on after I aired the tires back up at the charger right before heading home.
- Car is super fast and could keep up with basically any car there (on the straights). This includes a couple Caymans and various generations of Corvettes.
- Car does not seem to limit power based on battery percentage; at least not until "battery low" comes up at 12% or whatever. My fastest time was on a lap that ended with 16%.
- The only warning light I ever had was low washer fluid. Turns out the sensor is on the right side of the tank so the warning would pop up on hard right turns
Tire wear: I don't have a specific tire tread caliper, but I do have a regular caliper so I measured my tread in three different main grooves on all four tires immediately before my first lap and immediately after my last. On average, I lost ~1/32 from each tire. The track doesn't have a great surface, and is very hard on the left front, so the outside shoulder of that tire is ummm not in the same condition it was. This isn't a great picture but shows the chunks coming off from the shoulder.
Efficiency: Here's a big one. During the warm up laps, I would get ~0.9 mi/kWh. During the hard laps, that would drop to 0.5 mi/kWh. A/C was off while driving with both front windows down. My lifetime efficiency with 18k miles is ~3.3 so I got about 1/7th of my normal efficiency.
My M4 gets ~22 mpg in normal mixed driving (~27 on a highway) but only 6-8 mpg during track or autocross events. So it gets 1/3rd to a 1/4th while driving hard while the Air got 1/7th.
From my first lap to my last (including driving to and from the charger at lunch), I used a total of 125 kWh to travel 119.2 miles.
Summary: Fast car that's hampered by lack of traction. Of course, this is not what the car is made to do, and it actually performed better than I expected. I was initially hoping to get around 2:05 - 2:10 based on my M4's times. To only be 7 seconds short is pretty crazy. Just putting on some summer tires would help considerably. Unfortunately, the rims are only 8" so I wouldn't be able to get wider tires with these same rims. That said, I don't know if I actually plan to take this car to the track again, so stickier wider tires would only hurt efficiency.
Wish list (?): It would be great to see tire temps. My M4 shows tire pressure and tire temps which is helpful is cases like this.
Track mode. Some Teslas have a track mode that shows various things like lap times and G-meter and has more detailed settings. Also can record laps using the built in cameras. I think the Taycan has something similar and I'm sure the Ioniq 5 N does as well.
Battery health/temps. Track mode has this but I'm pretty sure some other EVs show info like this as well. (this is the only one I could foresee Lucid ever adding)
I'm sure there's stuff I'm missing so feel free to ask any questions!
