Although not the most powerful or fastest Lucid Air entitled to wear a license plate, the Dream Edition Performance is ridiculously capable in a straight line. From two electric motors, it belts out 1,111 horsepower and 1,025 pound-feet (1,390 Nm) of near-instant twist.
It's not all good news, though. As with most zero-emission vehicles, the Dream Edition Performance is a bit of a porker due to its 118-kWh battery pack that offers a driving range of 471 miles (758 kilometers) on 19-inch wheels. That estimate drops by 20 miles when fitted with 21-inch wheels. The car in the featured clip also rocks performance-oriented tires from Pirelli rather than the low-resistance rubber customary of most EVs.
Tipping the scales at 5,236 pounds (2,375 kilograms), the Air is clearly heavier than the blue-painted G80 next to it, an M3 Competition xDrive that originally weighed 3,924 pounds (1,780 kilograms). Originally as in the car is anything but stock. Tuned by Tom Wrigley Performance in the United Kingdom, the Bimmer is running downpipes, injectors, and a remap, among other modifications that can be classified as bolt-on goodies.
Internally referred to as S58, the twin-turbocharged I6 of the M3 is based on the B58 single-turbo I6 engine. In this application, it should make 503 horsepower and 479 pound-feet (650 Nm) from the outset. It actually cranks out more because BMW underrates its regular production and M six- and eight-cylinder powerplants.
Mat Watson of carwow says the modified S58 in this M3 Competition xDrive is good for 750 metric ponies and 900 Nm, figures that convert to 740 horsepower and 664 pound-feet. Very impressive for merely 3.0 liters of displacement, isn't it? Together with that quick-shifting automatic transmission from ZF and BMW's proficiency at calibrating launch control systems, the compact executive sedan has a fair chance of shaming that Lucid in the quarter mile on an unprepped surface.
In both dig races, the M3 launches harder than the Air Dream Edition Performance, and keeps pulling strong until the finish line. The Lucid launches better with the electronic stability control turned off, yet fails to beat the BMW in the quarter mile. Their best ETs were 10.2 seconds, the BMW taking the win by a hair's breadth.
The first of two rolling start races didn't fare well for the M3, which started in second gear at 30 miles per hour (nearly 50 kilometers per hour). The second saw Mat in the BMW start in third gear at 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour), resulting in a much closer half-mile finish. If you've been keeping count, the scoreboard reads 2 to 2 after the aforementioned four drag races.
For the last challenge, both cars have to stop from 100 miles per hour (nearly 160 kilometers per hour) to zero as quickly as possible. As expected, the M3 Competition xDrive – with its 0.8-inch wider rear tires and much lower weight – easily outbreaks the American sedan.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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