You’ve been waiting for this one, haven't you? Brooks Weisblat was there to witness two of the hottest EV’s out there go head to head in a quarter-mile showdown. Well, here it is folks, Plaid vs Lucid AIR.
Overview
Now we regularly feature videos from the Dragtimes YouTube channel, and today's race is right up there with some of the very best that we’ve covered so far.
Although it was a clear day, the conditions were far from perfect as windspeed got up to 40 mph. However, that wasn’t going to deter the presenters from going ahead with the race.
There couldn’t be a more fitting venue to stage this ultimate EV showdown, than at the Pennzoil proving grounds, just outside of Houston Texas. It's the same place where we’ve seen countless other drag battles by Hennessy Performance.
Lucid AIR Performance Dream Edition
It was just last week that Brooks put out another video timing the Lucid's ¼ mile time. The Lucid AIR Performance Dream Edition of course is the most powerful production sedan in the world. It packs all-wheel-drive traction and puts out 1111 horsepower and 1025 pound-feet of torque from its dual electric motors.
The AIR tips the scales at 5236 pounds and costs $170,000. Do note that, unlike the Plaid, the AIR does not have a dedicated drag strip mode / track mode to regulate the temperature in the battery pack.
Tesla Model S Plaid
The Tesla Model S Plaid meanwhile belongs to John Hennessy himself. You already know the landmark figures. 1020 horsepower and 1050 pound-feet of torque from its tri-motor setup.
The Tesla also has all-wheel drive and is lighter than the Lucid coming in at 4833 pounds. The Tesla is sitting on Michelin Pilot 4S tires, while the Lucid is on Pirelli P Zero tires. The Plaid costs $124,000. Numbers taken care of, let's see what’s what, out on the drag strip.
The Races
The two EVs went head to head across four rounds. The first three were the classic standing quarter-mile, followed by a roll race.
Round 1
With the two performance EV sedans lined up for launch, there was just one thing left to do. Launch them, and launch they did. The Tesla’s batteries were primed, thanks to that new Track mode which apparently is even faster than the Drag strip mode. As a result, the moment the hammer dropped, it took off, despite being slightly down on power. This is where that torque advantage really came into play.
Round 2
For round two, the Tesla didn’t use its launch mode. As a result, without the torque vectoring, the Plaid handed over the wind to the AIR on the second pass.
Round 3
The third round saw the Model S Plaid hunker down into track mode and once again the results were the same as round one. It in fact posted an astonishingly quick ¼ mile time of 9.67 seconds at 146.02 mph
The Roll Race
With that, the pair decide to stage the final pass. They go round the corner before giving it the beans on the main straight from 25 mph. And once again, the Model S Plaid manages to put a considerable gap between the Lucid AIR and itself. So thats three out of four and we have a definitive winner. The Tesla dominates once again.
To Sum It Up
Okay, so although the Lucid is the most powerful sedan in the world, it was never meant to be about speed rather it was always about Luxury. The conditions were also less than perfect. Regardless, Lucid did reach out to Brooks and gave a few recommendations that might help to further improve the ¼ mile times.
Brooks anticipates that with the ideal conditions, he should be able to pull a 9.8-second pass with the AIR. For now, I can’t wait for the Lucid to take on the Porsche Taycan Turbo S next. The final video will be all three performance sedans let loose at once. Watch this space.
You can watch the race in more detail in the video below