2024 Lucid Air Sapphire at Lightning Lap 2025

From the March/April 2025 issue of Car and Driver.
Class: LL4 | Base: $253,400 | As Tested: $253,400 Power and Weight: 1003 hp • 5319 lb • 5.3 lb/hp Tires: Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS Elect; F: 265/35ZR-20 (99Y) LM1, R: 295/30ZR-21 (102Y) LM1
After setting an impressive 2:44.3 lap last year—a new record for EVs and four-doors—why is the Lucid Air Sapphire back, and how did it turn into the fastest car of the year? Tires. Lucid now offers R-compound Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tires, tuned to Lucid's specifications, and combines the stickier rubber with updated calibrations to take advantage of them. This is the same tire Porsche fits to the Taycan Turbo GT, making the battle between the two top electric sedans about as even as they come, although the cars are quite different to drive.
"I think the regen braking just induced major oversteer in the Infield esses," testing director Dave VanderWerp reported to the Lucid team in the paddock after a particularly attention-grabbing moment. Calibration engineer Esther Unti instantly responded, "That's definitely a thing." This is a window into driving the Lucid, which is more raw than the Porsche, demanding skillful inputs from hands and feet. The looser handling setup is also deliberate to work the rear tires more and keep the fronts from overheating.
Speaking of heat, the additional tire grip is obvious, with lateral acceleration in Turn 1 increasing from 1.09 to 1.13 g's, which means the Sapphire can use more power out of every corner. This causes the battery to get too hot to make maximum output for the entire lap, so the engineers removed a dollop of power to stay just beneath the give point, which is why the Air's peak speed is down by 2.9 mph. But this only makes the Sapphire's 4.1-second improvement more impressive, as it's now in the hunt with the fastest cars we've ever run. For example, through Sector 3—Oak Tree, down the long Back Straight, and just past the tight right known as Bitch—the Sapphire is the second quickest in Lightning Lap history, a mere half-second behind the McLaren Senna and quicker than every other McLaren and every Porsche and Corvette we've run. Sure, the Lucid can hustle, but the brakes are even more mind-boggling, with a firm pedal that remained consistent no matter what we threw at it.
The Sapphire's time put it in 10th place on the all-time leaderboard, right in the supercar mix, where most entries cost more, all weigh at least 1650 pounds less, and none have a back seat. It's as if the Sapphire doesn't know it's a 5319-pound luxury sedan—we can't believe it either.
Back to Lightning Lap 2025
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