Lucid Air puts LaFerrari to shame during hill climb

Hypercars

Electric cars are boring and American (sports) cars can only drive straight. Once upon a time, there was a grain of truth in these two oft-repeated criticisms from “analog” car enthusiasts where gasoline flows through their veins. But how different it is today. Times have changed and the Lucid Air, which is both American-made and fully electric, proved that once again recently. With verve. Even renowned hypercars like the Ferrari LaFerrari stood by and watched. They couldn’t do more than that.

Curving Miracle

Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, is known to be a tricky circuit, with one very vicious corner combination in particular: the Corkscrew. Many drivers dread this infamous chicane because of the considerable difference in height between entering and exiting it. In the meantime, after all, there is still steering to be done – hence the name corkscrew (translated into Dutch). For both man and machine, such load changes and natural forces are quite a challenge, especially on race pace.

Lucid Air

The world’s best and most advanced supercars are designed and built to dive into complex cornering combinations like the Corkscrew hard and come through in one piece. The Lucid Air, on the other hand, was developed and intended to be a super-deluxe premium limousine. Type of S-class, say. In addition, the Lucid Air is teetering heavy due to the many batteries on board, while mass at speed naturally prefers to go straight. It takes a lot of technology and skill to turn such a car into a cornering wonder. Something Lucid Air has apparently succeeded in doing and how!

The Stig

Driver Ben Collins (who you may know as the face behind Top Gear’s original Stig) braved the Laguna Seca Corkscrew Hillclimb in a time of just under 39 seconds. He and the American electro-limo were thus a whopping five seconds faster than a competitor in a LaFerrari. The rest of the participants were already completely out of luck. Admittedly, the Lucid Air is over 1,100 hp and 1,390 Nm strong, but the LaFerrari is by no means a stunner either, with 963 hp, 900 Nm and the master tamers of the prancing horse as its backbone. Well done, Lucid!