U-DRAGS RACE: Lucid Air Sapphire vs. Tesla Model S Plaid | Quarter Mile, Handling & More

Hi, I'm Alistair Weaver. That is the iconic Jonathan L. Farlan. And this is the one you've all been asking for. Tesla Model S Plaid with Track Pack against Lucid Air Sapphire. Oh, yes. We do read the comments. Let's get on with it. Ooh, it's finally happening. Today, we have the 2024 Lucid Air Sapphire with 1,234 horsepower and 1,430 pound-feet of torque. It's running on the newly introduced Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RSs. Going up against the 2023 Tesla Model S Plaid. Don't worry. It has the Track Package with 1,020 horsepower and 1,050 pound-feet of torque. It's on Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3Rs. These two are going head-to-head under Edmunds U-Drag track, which starts with a quarter-mile drag. Then they hit the brakes, do a 180, and power back to start finish. At the end of the first run, we'll swap drivers and lanes and do it again. Do you love Edmunds U-Drags? Subscribe now so you don't miss this. And be sure to check out edmunds.com. We have all the info and inventory you need when shopping for a new or used vehicle, including the famous Edmunds ratings. And we'll even make you a cash offer for your old car. So how do we set up the Plaid for this? Well, we're in drag strip mode. We've pre-conditioned the batteries. That took about 15 minutes to do. I've got the suspension in its lowest setting, adaptive suspension damping into sport. Then left foot on the brake, mash the throttle with my right foot. We then go into a sort of launch sequence where it hunkers down into cheater mode. That takes about a dozen seconds, 12, 15 seconds, something like that. I have a little symbol that says when it's ready to launch. And away we go. Crazy to think that this car is 1,020 horsepower. And I am, by comparison, the poor relation. That has 200 horsepower more and just as significantly 400 pounds feet of torque more. So how can I win? Well, I'm going to rely on the $20,000 track package. Can I be more astute under braking? And can I carry more speed through the corner? That is the beauty of the Edmunds U-Drags format. If you've been doing this a long time, then the adrenaline does tend to recede a little bit if it's golf R against Fisker. But this, this is the big one. And I can feel it. Oh, boy. Man, I've been waiting for this race for a long time, as I know you guys probably have, too. I'm sitting in the Lucid Sapphire. We have on some of the newest Lucid tire offerings. It's the Pirelli Trofeo RS tires, super sticky. So we're actually one of the first outlets to test this thing. So yeah, I mean, this is, I think it's going to be wicked fast. It's going to stop wicked well. And I don't know, I'm just, I'm ready to be blown away by this thing. This is, I think, the most powerful American production car out there right now. And how do we launch this thing? So we have four drive modes here. We have smooth, swift, sapphire. And we have a track mode, which when I press that, it brings up a number of other settings here. So you have drag strip. You have hot lap. You have endurance. I'm told that hot lap and endurance are more for battery maintenance. So it cools the battery down. We don't want that in this particular case. We want the battery nice and warm. So I'm going to select drag strip over here. We put it in drive mode. And then we do foot hard on the brake, plant the accelerator. We're going to get a little cute little bear icon that pops up on the dash saying that launch control is activated. And away we go. It'll be over very, very quickly. Let's do this. I'm ready. Let's go. It's all about the visualization. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Oh! He's gone. Yeah! Oh, stop. Oh my god. Now fire it out. Can we be? Oh. It just can't have much horsepower. It's just more horsepower. This is wild. 64 miles an hour. Wow. That's better than coffee. This thing is no joke. Like, this is a 5,300 pound luxury sedan. And it is one of the most violent acceleration experiences you can experience. I don't know what else to say. It leaves you at a loss for words, really. Yeah, what I would say about this Plaid, it stops now with this track package. You can really kind of lean on the brakes a little bit more. And that's kind of different to the earlier Plads that we drove. It does make a huge difference. The other thing that was weird, and I'd be interested to see what you feel when you go through, is when you come through the corner, because you're in drag strip mode, you can feel the stability control, not wanting to deploy all the horses. And it's a little bit frustrating. I was having to take it, sort of take it in, get it stopped, and then get it straight as quickly as possible so that it would actually deploy the horses. The Lucid doesn't seem to have that same issue. And actually, coming around the corner, I got some oversteer. Not a lot, but I certainly didn't feel hamstrung in the power department. The Plaid gets right up to speed pretty quickly. But you lose half a second, and that could be, I don't know, 30 feet with how fast these cars are. Talking about the brakes, this thing has excellent brakes. Like, the carbon ceramics are awesome. And they come with the car, thankfully. Yeah, this feels like a more rounded package. But it might be worth trying it in track mode so that you might lose a bit on the start, but gain a bit through the corner. Because it definitely felt a little bit hamstrung trying to get back on the power and fire it out of the exit. The computers were working overtime, and there felt like a little hesitation as it did its stuff. All right, that sounds like a good strategy. I mean, at this point, any strategy that might give it an advantage is worth testing out. Shall we swap? I feel like 1,020 horsepower isn't quite enough. I guess. I mean, yeah, I'll have a go in that. OK, so here we go. Lucid Air Sapphire have stepped up from a mere 1,020 horsepower to 1,234, which may have something to do with the marketing department. I'm going to do exactly the same as Jonathan, because he did really well. Leave everything as was. Dial up launch control on five, on about the count of five, because that's what Jonathan said. And away we go. OK, well, you saw how that went. So I had my work cut out for me. But we're going to go ahead and try this thing in track mode. What this will do is give us better acceleration off the corner. So yeah, we'll see. Let's do this. Five, four, three, two, one. Did not have the punch off the line, but we'll see. Focus, focus, focus, focus, focus. Wow. OK, let's grab the brakes. Come on. Brake early. Fire it out. Here we go. And we look like we're winning. I brake early there, and it's still miles ahead. It's not very close. Oh, actually. Come on, Plaid. Oh, yes. What a thing. Sorry if I didn't do a lot of chatting there, but there's plenty to concentrate on. All right, Alistair, what did you think? It just feels like not just is it faster, it just feels nicer, particularly through the corner. It just turns, it grips, it goes. It brakes really well for such a big, heavy, fast car. The turning is nice. In contrast to the Tesla, you can actually just get back on the power in a much more linear way, and the car kind of works with you rather than feeling like you're asking the car to do something it doesn't really want to do. I felt like that was my experience as well. The brakes in particular are monster. The brakes in this car also do a pretty good job of slowing you down, but I don't have a whole lot of feel. You have the stopping power, but just not the finesse. But that being said, in track mode, the launch was definitely a lot softer. I didn't get that kick off the line. Certainly coming off the corner, the car felt a lot more free. Actually got a little bit of wheel spin, not too much, but it just felt like I could get on the power a lot sooner, and I definitely prefer that. Yeah, I really wish I had that strong launch, but I think there was more to gain at the far end of the course. So I think what you want to do next time is start in drag strip, and then as you're going down, you could change the mode just before you brake. I think a man of your talent. Maybe a man of your talent. I don't think I can walk and chew gum at the same time, so it might be a challenge for me. And that was ridiculous. We love doing these races, so like, subscribe, and share this video so we can keep them coming. Here's the track conditions. And for the best numbers. Zero to 60 goes to the Lucid Air Sapphire at 2.2 seconds. Quarter mile goes to the Sapphire again at 9.2 seconds at 149.6 miles an hour. Max cornering goes to the Lucid, pulling 1.34 Gs. And the win goes to the Lucid Air Sapphire at 27.9 seconds at 163.3 miles an hour. If you want to check out the official leaderboard, head on over to edmunds.com slash udrags. The Lucid Air Sapphire is the new champ and takes the top spot at number one with a time of 27.9 seconds. And the Tesla Model S Plaid is in fourth with a time of 29.8 seconds. So in the end, that was kind of conclusive. 400 pounds feet more torque, 200 horsepower more, and it wins. But I think it's a little bit more than that. I don't want to take away anything from either of those cars. Like, they are both amazing. This one may be just a little bit more amazing. It certainly feels newer. I don't know, the braking experience, the traction control tuning, it just feels a little bit better put together than the Tesla. This just felt like a much more sorted sports sedan. But, and there is a big but, it's more than twice the price. Yeah, I mean, but it feels like you're owning a piece of the future, the automotive engineering future. Anyway, we're so glad we finally made this happen. Thank you to Luce and Tesla for all their help in making it here to the airfield. If you like what you've seen, please subscribe to the channel. Check out our leaderboard, edmunds.com slash udrags. Check out everything else that Edmunds has to offer. Sell your car, buy your car, do everything that you need in the automotive world. Thank you for watching. See you next time.