Sapphire in September

[Amster]

Why Sapphire?
Quite few members here got it right.
My list in no particular order:
Bragging rights? - check
Performance? - check
Exclusivity? - check
Tracking? - check
Me feeling great? - check
My wife's approval factor? - not checked.

The last one is the one that counts!

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Other than for bragging rights, why would someone buy a car with this much HP unless the individual wanted to track it?

That sums it for me. I have 4k miles and have not been out of Smooth mode. Don't feel the need as is already past my skill set.

ranking by numbers ( 0-60) doesn't mean much ...
how you feel when you walk towards your car, and how you feel when you get right close to scaring yourself

A HS friend bought a TR3 and worked on it for years. One summer day he appeared and took me for a spin. Still, the best and most fun day of driving for me, and I was just a passenger. We probably did all of 36 mph on the back roads...my right kidney exposed to the wind...there is not much door on these things. What makes driving fun is all about how the car makes you feel.

your kidney sorta hangs out over the door in these things....it's a blast in the rain!

 

[Bill55]

Other than for bragging rights, why would someone buy a car with this much HP unless the individual wanted to track it?

The percentage of Ferraris and Lamborghinis or Z06s that get tracked is very low. The number that get custom rims, lowered, custom exhaust, is much higher. Driving these cars on track opens them up to a lot of potential damage and very high wear and tear. The track is most fun when driving close to others, then you have lots of rubber and other debri to damage the finish as well. It’s not unusual to have someone put 40k in a brand new M5 comp or Z06, even more into a Ferrari or Lambo. Sometimes delivered to the shop straight from the dealer. People want something that is at least a little unique.

I‘m going to get a C8 Z06 as a convertible, to ensure I keep it off the track. Most tracks will not allow convertibles even if they are hardtop. I’ll rent some Z06 seat time at a track. No worries about damaging my own car.

I‘m sure I’ll do an HPDE here and there in the Sapphire, acceleration runs at test track for fun. Most of its miles will be on the road with 2 out of the three motors being just extra weight most of the time.

 

[Amster]

That sums it for me. I have 4k miles and have not been out of Smooth mode. Don't feel the need as is already past my skill set.

ranking by numbers ( 0-60) doesn't mean much ...
how you feel when you walk towards your car, and how you feel when you get right close to scaring yourself

A HS friend bought a TR3 and worked on it for years. One summer day he appeared and took me for a spin. Still, the best and most fun day of driving for me, and I was just a passenger. We probably did all of 36 mph on the back roads...my right kidney exposed to the wind...there is not much door on these things. What makes driving fun is all about how the car makes you feel.
View attachment 13167your kidney sorta hangs out over the door in these things....it's a blast in the rain!

At one point in time, my ride was an MG Midget. I absolutely loved that car. I learned to drive stick shift in it on the streets of San Diego, which made for an interesting first month of ownership. It was a really fun, little car to drive around in. But not in the rain, the leaky roof and scratched up back window made for some horrible freeway rides. But I agree, it's all about how a car makes you feel.

 

[Bill55]

The Sapphire is going to be a monster with performance near to the 2.2M Nevera.
It would be nice to have an electric sports car in the 100k range.

It seems as though there’s another area where TG aligns with Nakamura’s vision too – touchscreens.
“They’re mostly physical buttons in the AIM,” he says. “Physical buttons are much easier to use. With a touchscreen you have to look at it to see what you’re doing, which is no good for a sports car.”
Well said, Shiro. Now, will somebody please tell the world’s major car manufacturers…

R35 Nissan GT-R designer: current EV design is too aggressive — BBC Top Gear Magazine

Shiro Nakamura agrees with TG on touchscreens and tells us why his latest car is “charming”

apple.news

 

[xponents]

What you are looking for is an electric version of the Toyota 86 -- a relatively slow vehicle that is designed for the twisties with a big battery. While it is a unicorn now, eventually your car will exist.

It's happening! Honda is making an electric S2000... which is their first on their own platform. Unveil later this year!

 

[Bill55]

grin and bear it

 

[hydbob]

grin and bear it

Heck yea. When did they say you would be taking delivery?

 

[Worldwide Beagle]

At one point in time, my ride was an MG Midget. I absolutely loved that car.

I still have the Thor copper head hammer for my first car, a beat up MGB. And a very old bumper sticker that says: Lucas Electrics, the reason why the British drink warm beer.

 

[Bill55]

Heck yea. When did they say you would be taking delivery?

They are not committing to delivery dates yet. Got a ride in one of the preproduction cars. Wow!

 

[Amster]

They are not committing to delivery dates yet. Got a ride in one of the preproduction cars. Wow!

You are a lucky man!

 

[Bill55]

You are a lucky man!

Is this plate a clue?

 

[Bill55]

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[Amster]

I still have the Thor copper head hammer for my first car, a beat up MGB. And a very old bumper sticker that says: Lucas Electrics, the reason why the British drink warm beer.

I don't have anything left from mine, other than memories. Keeping that thing running and on the road was difficult enough to have me drinking a lot of things, never warm beer though.

 

[hmp10]

I really hate to sound pro Tesla, personally will not buy a Tesla due the the way they treat their customers.

Amen. After paying $3,000 for the Enhanced Autopilot option on our 2015 Model S P90D (the top ADAS offering at the time), Tesla began to deactivate its features one by one and migrate them over to the new FSD platform. First they began to limit the system's use to speeds no more than 5 mph above the posted speed limit. Then they geofenced the system so that it no longer worked on roads it initially did. Then they removed turn-signal-activated lane changing. By the time we traded the car six years later, all it had left was lane centering and adaptive cruise control.

Not having learned the lesson, we bought a 2021 Model S Plaid. Since we were trading the 2015 Tesla for it, the Tesla store had me order the new car through my existing Tesla account to facilitate the trade-in paperwork. However, as the car was for my partner, I had it titled in his name from the get-go, including in the Tesla order documents. I asked about purchasing the Tesla extended warranty and was told that could only be done through a Service Center when the car was delivered. When we then tried to purchase the extended warranty at the Service Center, we were told that, since the car was registered in a different name than was on the account through which the car was ordered, we could not buy an extended warranty. Multiple phone calls and emails to Tesla central never resolved the issue, and to this day we don't have the extended warranty.

No problem. We won't keep the car for four years, and it is the last Tesla we will buy. As they say, fool me twice . . . .

 

[xponents]

They are not committing to delivery dates yet. Got a ride in one of the preproduction cars. Wow!

DETAILS. I want you to write a 5000 word book on how the drive was.

 

[hmp10]

DETAILS. I want you to write a 5000 word book on how the drive was.

Yep. Me, too.

 

[Bill55]

The car looked very good. The paint was similar to BMW carbon black except a little lighter shade of blue in the sunlight. As the light faded it started to look more navy then black. The interior felt more put together than my early build. I think it is probably a combination of every supplier working on improvements. The darker interior gave me more of a luxury impression. I like the interior of th DE, but I liked the Sapphire interior better. The windshield is not a reduced version of the glass roof. It is like a standard windshield with the sun visors attached to the roof. This gives the car a much different feel. I think I will miss the glass roof 30% of the time and the other 70% of the time I will enjoy the additional protection from the sun.

I didn’t get to drive so impressions are as a passenger. We discussed race tracks and how the DE and the Sapphire would perform on steep banking like Daytona. Early software builds he said would have been a problem, but that I could take either car out on the banking and they will perform very well. He mentioned the Sapphire going 205, that might indicate the software limit that will be on the car. The DE is limited to 168 as many of you already know. He also confirmed as suspected that turning off all driving aids, there are still some software protections in place. This makes sense as fully unrestrained the motors would be capable of just shredding the tires.

I have been driving the DE for almost 20 months. I have done countless acceleration runs and laps on a racetrack. Even whith all that the Sapphire was noticeably quicker. The on ramp we took was not a particularly long ramp and yet 100 appeared almost immediately and he lifted to let the car go into regen to get back to a reasonable speed before merging. The car feels smoother. Essentialy the entire suspension is a redesign. The suspension or the Michelins or most likely the combination of the 2 smoothed out imperfections in the road that might be jarring in the DE. Hopefully we will not see the sidewall bubbles in the Michelins. Exiting the freeway and returning via Mulholland drive up the mountain, the car was put into Sapphire mode, which replaces sprint. There is a track mode which we did not use on the street.
With Sapphire mode engaged the car uses vectoring to help rotate the car into turns. From the passenger seat it felt similar to rear wheel steering of the BMW. I think it will take hands on the wheel to really appreciate. The car turned in easily and we took a few turns at speeds I would have expected some tire squeal. The Michelins remained quiet. The car rotate and could have easily accelerated faster than we did out of the corner. There was no doubt the car was well within it’s limits. As I was thinking there was a lot more available, David turned and said ”this is nowhere near the limit.”
The last demonstration of the ride was the new in house traction control. Previously Lucid was using a Bosch controller whigh made adjustments every 20-30 milliseconds. The new inhouse unit responded every millisecond. At a stop with a 90 degree turn, mid turn, the accelerator was put to the floor, the car rotated and shot forward like a bat out of hell, no drama, just building speed at an incredible rate. Just about any other the car the intervention of the traction control would have been quite noticeable.

The software build was a 1.0.xx. I got a chance to go through all the menus and other than the Sapphire specific items, seems to be same underlying build as what we have on our cars now.
I know some of you will feel the glass roof is a defining element of the car. If it was available as an option, I’m not sure if I would get it or not. I am almost always driving when I am in the car and don’t spend a lot of time looking above the visor.

An additional note. I was told Lucid is working very hard on the V2H. There are regulatory issues and they are working together with other manufacturers and they are very eager to be able to demonstrate the bidirectional capabilities of the car. Of course they could not comment on any timeline. I also asked since they are suppling Formal E and Aston Martin, how about a crate motor for shops doing EV conversions.

 

[xponents]

The car looked very good. The paint was similar to BMW carbon black except a little lighter shade of blue in the sunlight. As the light faded it started to look more navy then black. The interior felt more put together than my early build. I think it is probably a combination of every supplier working on improvements. The darker interior gave me more of a luxury impression. I like the interior of th DE, but I liked the Sapphire interior better. The windshield is not a reduced version of the glass roof. It is like a standard windshield with the sun visors attached to the roof. This gives the car a much different feel. I think I will miss the glass roof 30% of the time and the other 70% of the time I will enjoy the addition protection from the sun.

I didn’t get to drive so impressions are as a passenger. We discussed race tracks and how the DE and the Sapphire would perform on steep banking like Daytona. Early software builds he said would have been a problem, but that I could take either car out on the banking and they will perform very well. He mentioned the Sapphire going 205, that might indicate the software limit that will be on the car. The DE is limited to 168 as many of you already know. He also confirmed as suspected that turning off all driving aids, there are still some software protections in place. This makes sense as fully unrestrained the motors would be capable of just shredding the tires.

I have been driving the DE for almost 20 months. I have done countless acceleration runs and laps on a racetrack. Even whith all that the Sapphire was noticeably quicker. The on ramp we took was not a particularly long ramp and yet 100 appeared almost immediately and he lifted to let the car go into regen to get back to a reasonable speed before merging. The car feels smoother. Essentialy the entire suspension is a redesign. The suspension or the Michelins or most likely the combination of the 2 smoothed out imperfections in the road that might be jarring in the DE. Hopefully we will not see the sidewall bubbles in the Michelins. Exiting the freeway and returning via Mulholland drive up the mountain, the car was put into Sapphire mode, which replaces sprint. There is a track mode which we did not use on the street.
With Sapphire mode engaged the car uses vectoring to help rotate the car into turns. From the passenger seat it felt similar to rear wheel steering of the BMW. I think it will take hands on the wheel to really appreciate. The car turned in easily and we took a few turns at speeds I would have expected some tire squeal. The Michelins remained quiet. The car rotate and could have easily accelerated faster than we did out of the corner. There was no doubt the car was well within it’s limits. As I was thinking there was a lot more available, David turned and said ”this is nowhere near the limit.”
The last demonstration of the ride was the new in house traction control. Previously Lucid was using a Bosch controller whigh made adjustments every 20-30 milliseconds. The new inhouse unit responded every millisecond. At a stop with a 90 degree turn, mid turn, the accelerator was put to the floor, the car rotated and shot forward like a bat out of hell, no drama, just building speed at an incredible rate. Just about any other the car the intervention of the traction control would have been quite noticeable.

The software build was a 1.0.xx. I got a chance to go through all the menus and other than the Sapphire specific items, seems to be same underlying build as what we have on our cars now.
I know some of you will feel the glass roof is a defining element of the car. If it was available as an option, I’m not sure if I would get it or not. I am almost always driving when I am in the car and don’t spend a lot of time looking above the visor.

An additional note. I was told Lucid is working very hard on the V2H. There are regulatory issues and they are working together with other manufacturers and they are very eager to be able to demonstrate the bidirectional capabilities of the car. Of course they could not comment on any timeline. I also asked since they are suppling Formal E and Aston Martin, how about a crate motor for shops doing EV conversions.

Interesting that it was on v1, must be the same prototype from earlier appearances!
In addition, your description of the color seems perfect to me, always thought carbon black shouldve had some more blue in it.
Would you say that the ride quality of the sapphire is as good as the DE? From your desc it seems as if it is a very usable daily car!
Also, please let me know on what they said about the crate motor. I have wanted to swap out a miata with a lucid motor for a long time..

 

[Bill55]

Interesting that it was on v1, must be the same prototype from earlier appearances!
In addition, your description of the color seems perfect to me, always thought carbon black shouldve had some more blue in it.
Would you say that the ride quality of the sapphire is as good as the DE? From your desc it seems as if it is a very usable daily car!
Also, please let me know on what they said about the crate motor. I have wanted to swap out a miata with a lucid motor for a long time..

On the crate motor no response beyond we get that question a lot.

My impression on the ride, is in Smooth mode it is going to be better than the DE on 21s. Was very smooth in Sapphire mode as well. Most of the drive on asphalt that was in good condition so the stiffer setting was still comfortable. No doubt it will be fine as a daily driver.

No final range number. The goal is as close as possible to the DE performance. If it was Tesla I would bet on 420. I will be very surprised if it is below 400 and my guess is 415-430.