2024 Lucid Air Sapphire Driven: Your Everyday 1,200+HP, 1.9-Second Supersedan

There's no question that we've become desensitized to performance. Barely a week goes by when the MotorTrend test team doesn't record a sub-3.5-second run to 60 mph or a quarter mile in the 10s. Another new supercar with 1,000 horsepower? Of course, it's a Tuesday. Maybe it'll be 1,100 hp tomorrow. Even so, I'm a little taken aback by the numbers being talked about as we circle around a deliciously rough and ratty prototype of the forthcoming Lucid Air Sapphire in the pit lane at Willow Springs. "North of 1,200 horsepower." Okay. Understood. "Zero to 60 mph in 1.89 seconds." I ask for that one to be repeated. "Zero to 100 mph in under four seconds." It's at this point my brain hits the buffers. The next thing I know I'm in the driver's seat and the Sapphire is pointed at Turn 1 …

You'll need $249,000 to experience Lucid's new tri-motor monster but the company assures me the entry price buys a lot more than just a party trick. Even if 0-100 mph in three-point-something seconds and the quarter in less than nine seconds is a hell of a party trick. This is the Lucid Air, I suspect, the chassis engineers have wanted to build for some time. It is still "very much a road car," according to director of chassis and vehicle dynamics David Lickfold, "but it's much more focused and we sacrifice some range for a more aggressive chassis setup. It shows the latent potential."

That means more tire, more damping, a lower ride height and stiffer springs, a wider stance (0.5 inch wider front flares, 0.9 inch rears), and considerably bigger 16.5-inch brake rotors from Akebono. These are carbon-ceramic, naturally, and gripped by 10-piston calipers. Plus, there are some new aero tweaks to reduce lift and create a bit of positive downforce. All the good stuff you might expect of a supersedan. However, there are now two electric motors on the rear axle, each with its own inverter and integrated transmission and differential, opening the tuning and torque-vectoring options like a treasure trove. "It's a fantastic tool," confides Lickfold, "but it's incredibly complex to get right, and tracing a handling issue we don't like, for example, becomes a minefield. Is it mechanical, a torque-vectoring misstep? The work we've put into this car is hard to calculate. Basically, we've had to start again."

Imagine the options when you can directly control each wheel—slowing the inside rear wheel to rotate the car and accelerating the outside wheel to make the most of the newfound agility. Changing that strategy at high speeds to give huge confidence and stability. We've seen differentials that can send more power to outside wheels and electronics that can brake inside wheels, but no mechanical torque vectoring system gives the true freedom that a motor per wheel can provide. Layer this capability on top of the Air Grand Touring, already an impressive and mind-scramblingly fast car, and the potential is mouth-watering.

The Lucid team is shooting for the stars. The physical manifestation of the scale of their ambition sits in the pit lane just 20 or 30 yards away. Gleaming in the sunshine sits a Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. A long-standing benchmark and a hollering, bellowing, and deeply lovable anti-EV. It's not alone. Parked alongside the Blackwing is, perhaps, the ultimate fast sedan from BMW. The mighty M5 CS has poise, balance, grip, and responses of the highest order. I love that it's here and that Lucid isn't ashamed to admit just how good this car is. Working in a silo is pointless and having an M5 CS hanging around means there's nowhere to hide. No way to kid yourself that you've cracked it. To even start to approach that car's goodness, the Air Sapphire is going to need all that torque-vectoring magic to contain and direct its claimed 5,269 pounds …

Lucid grant me a few laps in a Grand Touring model as a refresher course, and it's enlightening. This dual-motor car (one per axle) produces 1,050 hp and is astonishingly fast. It's a little lighter but still a heavy machine, yet all 5,236 pounds disappear when you crack the accelerator. EVs with this level of power don't 'hit' different, it's more like they shove your whole body against the seat back and then squeeze and mold you into it. A sumo takedown instead of a knockout punch.

But, boy, does that weight reassert itself when you come to brake or change direction! The Grand Touring has a trustworthy balance and can be steered beautifully on power, but the simple truth is the braking performance and lateral grip don't come close to matching the sheer straight line acceleration. So instead of unleashing this car's performance you're mostly managing the mass, reining in the car, and, honestly, actively avoiding using a great deal of the available power. This is a luxury GT with a lot of performance, not a supersedan in the image of an M5, Blackwing, or AMG. On the road it's supple, quiet, and immensely fast. A racetrack is well beyond its comfort zone.

The prototype Sapphire has racing seats, harnesses, and a roll cage, which give it a bit of an unfair advantage. The vibe is exciting. Intimidating, even. The seating position is lower, too. The production version will use similar seats to the Grand Touring with added side bolstering, and so won't immediately exude the added focus of this car. Don't worry, though. The different character of the Sapphire pours through every fiber of its being. Before I leave the pit lane I know this tri-motor car is a different animal. There's more texture through the steering (production models will have an Alcantara-lined rim), the ride is so much stiffer and flatter, and the car responds to inputs like it weighs hundreds of pounds less than it does. It might be an illusion—but that doesn't matter. The Sapphire feels keen and energized and ready to attack a lap.

And that's what it does. Where the GT required patience, the Sapphire encourages aggression, in places where the standard car would slip inexorably into understeer the Sapphire uses powerful torque vectoring to remain neutral. The transformation from GT to Sapphire might not involve too much more power (believe me, it's plenty), but the chassis changes are as substantial as a rental-spec six-cylinder Mustang to a GT350R. Night and day. For me, or anyone who really enjoys agility, response, and a car that works hard to obey driver inputs, the Sapphire is so much more exciting. I'm sure the ride will take a hit on the road and interior noise levels will jump, too, but out on Big Willow any sacrifice to refinement is paid back with interest.

Some of this improvement is simply down to hardware. New and bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires utilize a near Cup-spec compound on the outer half of the tread for strong lateral performance, but the more standard inner section retains efficient rolling resistance. The sizes are much bigger but still fairly modest considering the power outputs. The rears measure 295/30ZR-21—a shade wider than the M5 CS's, but consider that the BMW has half the power and 1,000 fewer pounds to turn, plus it runs more aggressive R-rated Pirelli P Zero Corsas. Even so, the leap in pure mechanical grip is substantial and aided by much stiffer spring rates and adaptive Bilsteins that have been completely re-tuned. As before there are three drive modes, but here they ramp up through Smooth and Swift before hitting the new ultimate Sapphire mode, which replaces Sprint.

So what of the vaunted torque-vectoring? John Culliton, senior technical specialist for chassis and vehicle dynamics, explained earlier that it wasn't intended to be intrusive or overly contrived. "We've been tuning the chassis and the algorithms to give what is almost a three-meter-wheelbase car really good agility and balance at low speed, but a big priority has also been high-speed stability," he said. "But we wanted it to be seamless. If you design a system with the only goal is that it follows your steering input, then it can feel twitchy and darty and then it fights your corrections. You're sort of dancing around out of sync. This is meant to be the opposite of that—totally intuitive." At this point Lickfold interjects: "We've tried the car with torque-vectoring turned off and then engaged back-to-back at Thunderhill and the car essentially behaves in the same way, but it suddenly feels like you've put on R-compound tires. Everything just elevates."

On Big Willow you can feel the system. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's going on but the rear axle feels like it's manipulating the balance at times. Lift through the fast final turns and the car takes on a little oversteer-y attitude, as you'd expect. Then as you apply power, it seems to hold the car in this perfect state as if by magic. It's slightly spooky but very effective. Similarly, should you apply power before an apex, the front tires will push wide just for a moment before the outside rear wheel drives hard to pin them to the clipping point. I like the end result, but with just a few laps to acclimate, it does feel like the car is reacting counter to your expectations on occasion.

There are other areas to polish. The transition between regen and the highly-effective friction brakes needs some work and the pedal can feel slightly lumpy at times as it juggles the two systems. Over the fast hump of Turn 6 the rear unloads uncomfortably and the car takes time to settle. And then there's the simple fact that pushing 1,200-plus-hp through any chassis can overwhelm grip very quickly if you remove the traction control system altogether. The Sport setting is well-judged and best left on. Lucid also uses the electric motors to trim wheel slip, which they say is faster and less jarring than brake interventions. It certainly seems that way and is a tactic also adopted by Mercedes on its new C63 AMG and GT63 S E Performance.

In short, the Sapphire is shaping up to be a very trick and phenomenally fast supersedan. The torque-vectoring is fascinating and I'm sure will be iterated on many times in coming years to unlock ever greater agility. It already makes a huge, heavy car do things that seem to defy the laws of physics. The straight-line performance? It's crazy and very possibly will beat the Tesla Model S Plaid on its way to more than 200 mph. I could hardly care less about that. But if the final tweaks make the Sapphire more enjoyable than an M5 CS as an all-round proposition, then it will be truly remarkable. Lucid isn't there yet but it's chipping away and loving every second of the process. I salute its commitment.