Well here it is Tesla Plaid versus Lucid Air Sapphire on the same day in the same place~ no excuses!

[hmp10]

The Air is the only EV I'm interested in at this time. If not for the Lucid Air I would be driving the V12 BMW.

That's the boat I'm now in. After two Teslas and rides in friends' EVs, they all fall short of what I now understand an EV can deliver in terms of power, handling, ride, and room.

I hope to also have a Gravity Dream by this time next year. If something goes off track with Lucid I really don't know where I'd turn next. A couple of days ago I even found myself on the Audi website checking out the 2024 S8. (Of the three large German sedans, I think Audi does the best job with driving dynamics these days.)

 

[Bill55]

That's the boat I'm now in. After two Teslas and rides in friends' EVs, they all fall short of what I now understand an EV can deliver in terms of power, handling, ride, and room.

I hope to also have a Gravity Dream by this time next year. If something goes off track with Lucid I really don't know where I'd turn next. A couple of days ago I even found myself on the Audi website checking out the 2024 S8. (Of the three large German sedans, I think Audi does the best job with driving dynamics these days.)

I have a good friend who is going to buy a Gravity to replace a minivan. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure I have a use case for the Gravity. Now if Lucid offered a nice trade in deal for the DE, I could be persuaded. I'm keeping the Sapphire.

 

[Air_GT]

Late to the party here.

If you are comparing cars, drop reaction time that's comparing drivers.

Stock to Stock, once you start the mods there is no end point.

Buying the Sapphire to be a track car, you would be very disappointed in the number of laps your going to get at a track day, especially if only a 14-50 is available for charging.

Dry and 50 degrees, without emptying the car, maybe 50 pounds of stuff. I ran 5.8677 1/8th @ 123.38

I will track the car from time to time on OEM tires, I did not buy it as a track car.

I don't plan any mods, I'm daily driving the Sapphire.

I don't dislike Tesla, I just find they are not for me.

The Air is the only EV I'm interested in at this time. If not for the Lucid Air I would be driving the V12 BMW.
I have no plans to track the BMW. Not because it's not up to the task, It's just not that fun.

5.8677 in the eighth mile.
Multiply 1/8 mile by 1.55 and you get a pretty accurate 1/4 mile time of 9.09 which is in line with what’s expected (and clearly the car is quicker and faster than a model S plaid)

 

[hmp10]

I have a good friend who is going to buy a Gravity to replace a minivan. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure I have a use case for the Gravity. Now if Lucid offered a nice trade in deal for the DE, I could be persuaded. I'm keeping the Sapphire.

We're the only ones in our retiree group who still has a 3-row vehicle, and it gets a steady workout for dinner outings and day trips with six people. It's the only reason we have kept our Honda minivan and not yet become an all-EV household. The Gravity promises to fix that.

In fact, it may allow us to go down to a 2-vehicle household finally. There are times we both want use of an EV for our separate purposes, so we have the Model S Plaid and the Lucid Air Dream as well as the minivan. If the Gravity turns out to be as nice a driver as I think it will be, we may get rid of the Tesla. The Air? No way.

 

[xponents]

We're the only ones in our retiree group who still has a 3-row vehicle, and it gets a steady workout for dinner outings and day trips with six people. It's the only reason we have kept our Honda minivan and not yet become an all-EV household. The Gravity promises to fix that.

In fact, it may allow us to go down to a 2-vehicle household finally. There are times we both want use of an EV for our separate purposes, so we have the Model S Plaid and the Lucid Air Dream as well as the minivan. If the Gravity turns out to be as nice a driver as I think it will be, we may get rid of the Tesla. The Air? No way.

Keep the Odyssey! For example, if there is an electricity outage and your cars have no battery, you may need a gas car. It's also good to have a backup all the time! If the odyssey is paid off/was bought in full, keeping it as a backup surely won't cost much factoring the low honda maintenance in... right?

 

[hydbob]

Keep the Odyssey! For example, if there is an electricity outage and your cars have no battery, you may need a gas car. It's also good to have a backup all the time! If the odyssey is paid off/was bought in full, keeping it as a backup surely won't cost much factoring the low honda maintenance in... right?

There are only so many places to park a vehicle...

 

[hmp10]

Keep the Odyssey! For example, if there is an electricity outage and your cars have no battery, you may need a gas car. It's also good to have a backup all the time! If the odyssey is paid off/was bought in full, keeping it as a backup surely won't cost much factoring the low honda maintenance in... right?

We have a whole-house generator. During the 9-day power outage that followed Hurricane Irma, our Tesla was the only car anyone in our circle could keep on the road. The few gas stations that had generators to run their pumps were selling gas only to emergency and public-service vehicles.

It was an interesting case for EVs. A lot of people who evacuated in cars ran out of gas en route, as gas stations were selling out throughout the state. (There were fleets of tow trucks deployed along interstate 75 to pull stalled cars off the road.) However, EVs could still be charged in many cases, as power was still up in areas not reached by the storm while gas was gone both from people evacuating and from locals stockpiling in case the storm took an unexpected turn.

 

[borski]

That's the boat I'm now in. After two Teslas and rides in friends' EVs, they all fall short of what I now understand an EV can deliver in terms of power, handling, ride, and room.

That is exactly how I feel. I don't hate Teslas; they just aren't for me.

 

[victoryroad]

Straight-line acceleration gets a lot of attention, but after a few launch control starts the novelty wore off for me in my Turbo S. Anyway, who tracks large sedans? Sure, on long straights bhp matters, but over an entire circuit there are more important variables to consider. To me the overall suspension brilliance on public roads and ample acceleration from say 40 to 70 mph are quite satisfying in my AGT.

 

[Bill55]

Straight-line acceleration gets a lot of attention, but after a few launch control starts the novelty wore off for me in my Turbo S. Anyway, who tracks large sedans? Sure, on long straights bhp matters, but over an entire circuit there are more important variables to consider. To me the overall suspension brilliance on public roads and ample acceleration from say 40 to 70 mph are quite satisfying in my AGT.

There is something insanely satisfying about a sedan that goes to 60 in under 2 seconds. Or 3 or 4.

 

[GMan]

Hats off to the Lucid driver for even putting a Sapphire on a track in those conditions to begin with.

Until I see this matchup on a dry track with traction control off, and smoke coming from the Sapphire tires, I could care less about the results in the video.

 

[terrycs]

The race would have been more interesting and realistic to me if both cars ended up at a stop light at 30% SOC and not having time to prep battery before the run.

 

[ahmadr]

Last person I would trust to be unbiased would be a Lucid employee.

The only one we know that has done head to head testing is in the OP which y’all are quick to find faults all over in

Depends on the claim. If they claim our car is better, sure. If they claim one particular OEM tire has better longitudinal traction than another at a particular temperature and weather conditions, I'd put a lot of trust in their claim.

PS4S are better tires than Pirelli P Zero “electric”.

Tesla sells the 21” upgrade with PS4S. So what you’re saying is, if the Plaid was on the same tires as the Sapphire, the Plaid would’ve done even better!?

This S was on the shitty 19s though. If the S was on 21s, it would’ve done better. I don’t understand why he’s comparing the tires when the sapphire ALREADY has the tire advantage. Whether the 170lbs weight reduction would even out that advantage…I don’t know, maybe

The tires on both of the cars were OEM tires with OEM specific compounds and features, so I'm not sure how you are comparing them and reaching the conclusion that the PS4S is better than the PZero in those conditions.

Most importantly, considering the wet track, the race is practically traction limited. When you are traction limited, weight reduction or power increase won't help. Tires and better traction control will determine the winner.

 

[momo3605]

The tires on both of the cars were OEM tires with OEM specific compounds and features, so I'm not sure how you are comparing them and reaching the conclusion that the PS4S is better than the PZero in those conditions.

the model S PZero is an electric tire. It's not a true high performance summer tire. It has hard compounds that don't generally get good traction in cold conditions. It's also in the 50s, it's not exactly freezing, with some test passes to warm up, I don't think a PS4S should have any trouble. Anyway, i don't think there's anything definitive here, just that in the cold, the sapphire can't hook. Is it because of tires or because it has a softer launch logic? Maybe one day we'll find a sapphire owner willing to put this topic to rest

 

[ahmadr]

the model S PZero is an electric tire. It's not a true high performance summer tire. It has hard compounds that don't generally get good traction in cold conditions. Anyway, i don't think there's anything definitive here, just that in the cold, the sapphire can't hook. Is it because of tires or because it has a softer launch logic? Maybe one day we'll find a sapphire owner willing to put this topic to rest

The PS4S on the Lucid is also an OE tire designed for (an electric) Lucid. The P Zero on the Tesla is also an OE tire designed for Tesla. The "electric" badging on the tire means nothing when the tire is an OE tire built to the specific manufacturers tuning.
You can't even compare them with the similarly named non-OE siblings.

 

[Air_GT]

 

[Veritas51683]

That makes more sense. Great showing by the Sapphire pulling on the plaid. Boy that tesla owner irks me though. Something about his attitude.

 

[Air_GT]

Sapphire with a very strong trap speed of 155 mph in the video. Running 1.4 60 foots now and very low 9’s. Pretty much in line with everything I said in this thread. It’s officially faster and quicker than a model S plaid.

I still think 21" wheels are shooting yourself in the foot for drag racing. Lucid should do what Dodge does with the Demon and offer "track pack" rear wheels with the sapphire, which should be specially designed 19" (or whatever the smallest diameter that will clear the rear brake is) light weight wheels with drag racing tires. This way Sapphire owners can swap them out at the track and run consistent 8 second passes imo.

 

[hydbob]

That makes more sense. Great showing by the Sapphire pulling on the plaid. Boy that tesla owner irks me though. Something about his attitude.

Well, when you aren't the fastest, the excuse now is, well the car isn't $250k. Except plenty of these fast drag cars are not cheap by any means, whatever! Sapphire all day everyday!

 

[terrycs]

4 wheel burnout on the Sapphire was pretty cool to see.