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Latest Lucid Air Dream Edition Review Proves That It’s Something Very Special

The all-electric Lucid Air may come from an automaker with no prior experience building cars but it has proven itself to be one of the finest electric vehicles on the market.

A bunch of journalists have had the opportunity to drive the Lucid Air over the past couple of months and most recently, the guys from Throttle House in Canada headed to California to put the Lucid Air Dream Edition Performance variant through its paces. They walked away from the review seriously impressed.

Powering this flagship variant of the Lucid Air are two electric motors that combine to produce 1,111 hp. It is the most performance-focused variant of the Air but it still offers a range of 471 miles (758 km). Those who don’t need all 1,111 hp can also purchase the Air Dream Edition in Range guise with 933 hp and 520 miles (837 km) of range.

While testing the electric sedan, Throttle House notes that it feels like a luxury car first which is quite a bold statement considering the phenomenal performance that it offers. The Lucid Air also weighs several hundred pounds more than a Tesla Model S Plaid but despite that, it controls its mass incredibly well and offers up loads of grip and gives the driver heaps of confidence. Unlike the Model S Plaid, it also has a set of brakes that match the insane straight-line performance.

The Lucid Air has received a lot of praise recently and was even named as Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. Unlike some other electric vehicles, it has also started to reach the hands of customers and proves that while Tesla continues to dominate the EV market, it now has some serious rivals to worry about.

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Tesla Model S Plaid Needs 15 Seconds To Run Quarter Mile In ‘Chill’ Mode

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The Tesla Model S Plaid has been in the headlines a lot in recent months and has established itself as the world’s quickest production car this side of the Rimac Nevera and Pininfarina Battista hypercars.

Importantly, virtually all performance tests you’ll see online of the Model S Plaid show it being driven in Plaid mode with the available Drag Strip Mode system enabled. Eager to see how his Model S would perform in the more relaxed ‘Chill’ and ‘Sport’ driving modes, YouTuber DragTimes headed onto the street for some tests.

For the first test, he set a baseline with Plaid mode and Drag Strip Mode enabled, rocketing to 60 mph (96 km/h) in just 2.42 seconds and running the quarter-mile in 9.52 seconds at 148.58 mph (239.1 km/h). He then switched the EV into Sport mode. Doing so saw the 0-60 mph time climb to 3.51 seconds while the car then needed 11.14 seconds to run the quarter-mile with a trap speed of 129.36 mph (208.18 km/h). That’s still a quick quarter-mile time and just a few couple tenths behind a BMW M5 CS.

As for the ‘Chill’ mode, well it is exactly that. After pinning the throttle in this mode, the YouTuber is immediately amused with how much slower it is. It picks up speed very gently and ultimately needs a full 7.13 seconds to hit 60 mph and completes the quarter-mile in 15.27 seconds at just 93.81 mph (150.97 km/h).

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2022 Honda Civic Type R Takes To The Nurburgring In Anger

The forthcoming 2022 Honda Civic Type R has been filmed being pushed to its limits at the Nurburgring and looks very, very quick.

The new Civic Type R promises to be a significant improvement over the outgoing model, a car that has already established itself as the king of front-wheel-drive hot hatches. Honda’s eleventh-generation Civic is based on a new platform that’s stiffer than its predecessor while also having a slightly longer wheelbase and wider rear track. These upgrades alone should have a particularly profound effect on how the new Civic Type R drives.

All signs point towards the new car retaining the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder as the FK8 Civic Type R, albeit slightly modified to deliver a bit more than the curent 306 hp and 295 lb-ft (400 Nm). Adding even more horsepower and torque than this is never easy with a front-wheel-drive platform but given how well Honda’s engineers did in eliminating torque steer from the outgoing model, we suspect it can work out ways to add some extra grunt without any downsides.

Throughout this clip, a pair of camouflaged prototypes are shown lapping some of the most difficult sections of the circuit, including the famed ‘mini-Carousel’ where the car briefly jumps into the air, lifting one of its wheels off the pavement.

Honda will no doubt look to set a new production car lap record for a front-wheel-drive performance vehicle around the ‘Ring. The current record was set in April 2019 by the Renault Megane R.S. Trophy-R at 7:40.1. If the new Civic Type R can dip below the 7:40 mark, that would be a huge achievement, especially when you consider that the Megane R.S. Trophy-R is a stripped-down variant with front racing seats, no rear seats, and a roll bar.

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For Double The Price, Is The Bentley Bentayga Two Times The Car The Range Rover Sport Is?

When it comes to luxury SUVs, there’s a case to be made that the British have some compelling options on the market. While Land Rover has conquered the luxury SUV market with its Range Rover offerings for the longest time, the class has become a bit of free-for-all of late. So, Mat Watson from Carwow lines up the Range Rover Sport against the majestic Bentley Bentayga to compare the two luxury plug-in hybrid SUVs.

Now it’s not quite an equal pairing, especially as at £155,000 ($213,000) the Bentayga costs almost twice as much as the £75,000 ($103,000) Range Rover Sport. But the real question Watson seeks to answer is if the Bentayga is really worth that premium or if the margins are simply tied down in the name.

The Bentayga Plug-In Hybrid is offered with a 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 engine coupled to an electric motor that combine to produce 449hp. In comparison, The Range Rover Sport PHEV makes use of a hybrid-assisted 2.0-liter four-cylinder producing 404hp. While the gap seems large, both vehicles can do the 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) just over the 5-second mark, which means there’s no serious performance gap as you’d expect.

In town, which is where these vehicles will likely spend a majority of their life, both SUVs are, as you would have imagined, exceptional. One thing Watson did notice is that the Range Rover Sport lags when transitioning from electric to internal combustion when you put your foot down, which could ever so slightly affect your confidence when overtaking. The Bentayga, on the other hand, is more refined. Its suspension system handles potholes better, and power delivery is instant.

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When comparing both vehicles based on exterior design, the competition seems neck and neck. The Range Rover has more of a clean look from upfront, while the Bentayga screams in-yer-face luxury. When it comes to the side profile of each, Watson gave the edge to the Bentayga, with its chrome accents, wide body, and bigger wheels (although only by an inch). In the rear, his ‘stick of truth’ exposes a few fake parts on the Sport, such as the exaggerated exhaust and faux diffuser, giving the Bentley the edge once more.

However, it’s the interior where the Bentayga really feels that much more premium than the Range Rover. The Bentayga in this test does have the Mulliner pack that comes at the cost of an extra £10,000 ($13,750) and everything is as beautiful as you’d imagine a Bentley would be. The Range Rover’s interior isn’t shabby in any way at all, but it simply isn’t a match for the best from Crewe. The rear passenger space isn’t as great in the Range Rover Sport as it is in the Bentley either, especially if you plan to fit a child’s seat.

But is all this enough to justify that huge price difference between the two? While the Bentley Bentayga is better than the Range Rover Sport in almost every category, on balance, and at nearly twice the price, Watson thinks it’s not.

Grand Prix Cars In The 1930s Were Built For Straight Line Speed – But What If They Had Wings?

No technology has done more to shape racing cars and high performance road cars like the adoption of downforce-producing aerodynamic aids.

From the mid-late 1960s onwards, wings of one kind or another became pretty much an essential requirement for motorsport success and changed our perception of how a competition car looks so radically that when we see one without, like the new Peugeot Le Mans car, it looks weird.

But what would have happened if racing teams had adopted wings decades earlier? That’s what YouTuber GPLaps attempted to find out using an Auto Union Type C on racing sim Assetto Corsa. Yes, it’s just a game, but the physics should be realistic enough to give us an idea of the effects without having to potentially wreck a priceless original car should it all go, literally, belly up.

The Auto Union race cars built in the 1930s must rank as some of the scariest vehicles ever committed to pavement. Their teardrop fuselage bodies and massive engines that delivered over 600 hp in the craziest incarnations made them terrifyingly quick in a straight line, but when it came to moving some of that energy in a different direction, they were limited by their skinny tires and total absence of downforce.

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As this video points out, while carmakers did experiment with aerodynamics in the 1930s, their goal was to make the already fast cars even faster in a straight line with advanced streamlining, rather than improving cornering speeds by adding downforce.

So after setting a baseline time of 3:30.489 on the standard car on a very oversteery lap of the Nürburgring Sudschelife, the Nordschleife’s lesser know, and now abandoned, brother, GPLaps switches to a Type C fitted with a giant wing. The two-deck spoiler comes from a modern Supermodified short track open-wheel racer, which looks like a sprint car, and is estimated to deliver 1200 lb (544 kg) of downforce. But GPLaps says there’s nothing about its design that would have prevented Auto Union building one just like it in the 1930s.

It looks ridiculous on the vintage car, like some sort of giant sunshade, and of course it adds 150 lb (68 kg) of extra weight, while hardly helping the center of gravity. So it could conceivably hurt the Auto Union through the slower sections of the track where the car isn’t generating enough downforce to help the handling, and potentially reduce its top speed on the straight.

However, top speed appears even higher with the wing, possibly because the car exits the final corner faster thanks to the extra downforce, and the driver reports that it feels more stable. He’s still dealing with the skinny rubber and pre-war brakes though, so it looks a handful, and he claims it doesn’t totally change the character of the driving experience. But it does deliver a massive 6 second lap time reduction on the baseline 3:30.489 second lap.

Obviously the is just a fun experiment and in no way claims to deliver exact data showing what would have happened if Auto Union or their Mercedes Silver Arrows rivals had adopted downforce technology. But it’s fascinating to wonder, and the great in-game cinematography and the way GPLaps uses in-game footage of different cars to tell the backstory of downforce makes this a compelling watch.

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1980s Supercar Icons Showdown: Lamborghini Countach Vs. Ferrari Testarossa

If you grew up in the ’80s and were into cars, there’s a good chance you had one of two cars (or maybe both) as a poster on your bedroom wall: the Ferrari Testarossa and the Lamborghini Countach. But which was the best in real life?

That’s the question at the heart of this video from 888MF, which pitted a 1986 Countach LP 5000QV against a 1988 Testarossa to find out what they are like to drive on the road.

Although the Ferrari has been driven much less, showing only 8,000 miles (12,875 km) on the odometer, it feels like the car you’d prefer to drive day to day. It might be a little less visually striking than the Lamborghini but it’s a much more mature vehicle.

With build quality that befits its price tag, a quiet engine, good visibility, and predictable handling, the Testarossa is a remarkably easy car to drive. The gated shifter does take some getting used to, but the rest of it just feels like a normal car. And a good one at that.

The host says he’d be ready to take it across a continent if he had to, something he’d be much less willing to do in the Countach. With somewhat questionable build quality, absolutely appalling visibility, and braking performance that doesn’t inspire confidence, the Countach is a much less civilized affair.

There is an advantage to that, though. On a short drive, it makes much more of an impact than the Ferrari. It’s loud, it’s heavy, and it looks wild. It’s an absolute showboat of a car and if you just want to experience something fun for a little while, it’s peerless.

Whereas the Ferrari is a real grand tourer that you might actually drive, the Lamborghini is more of a showpiece that you use to impress your friends. Today, as it was for the children of the ’80s, the Countach remains, essentially, the automotive poster child of that wild decade that, if you can afford it, you can have in your garage instead of on your bedroom wall.

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QOTD: Which Group B Rally Icon Should E-Legend Turn Into An EV Next?

The Audi Sport Quattro-Inspired EL1 electric coupe is one of the most exciting cars we’ve seen this year, and its existence owes nothing to modern day Audi.

Instead, the 30-unit run of retro EVs is the work of another, much smaller company by the name of E-Legend. And according to Autocar, E-Legend plans to follow up the EL1 with more zero emissions homages to 1980s Group B rally icons.

Marcus Holzinger, E-Legend’s chairman and chief designer, suggested to Autocar’s Mike Duff that Lancia’s Delta S4 and 037 and Ford’s RS200 were all cars he would like to reinterpret as EVs, conceding that the running order might be decided by which generates the most demand from buyers.

Kimera Evo37

On its website at the foot of a section about the EL1, E-Legend states that “two more rally icons of the same type, also limited to 30 units, are expected to follow”.

The 037, you might recall, has already been rebooted by another independent company as the 498 hp Kimera Evo37, though that uses conventional ICE running gear rather than electric motors.

While the cars Holzinger mentions share nothing beyond their Group B history, E-Legend says it can produce any of them using a modified version of the carbon fiber monocoque chassis and triple-motor running gear found in the EL1.

Ford RS200

Autocar reports that the architecture is flexible enough to accommodate different wheelbase lengths, and that handling characteristics can be tweaked to mimic those of the original car by switching off the front motor or moving components to change weight distribution.

The 805 hp EL1 is claimed to accelerate to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 2.8 seconds, has a maximum speed of 186 mph (299 km/h), and costs €890,000 ($1.04 million) plus tax.

Which Group B icon do you think E-Legend should tackle next (we’re guessing not the embarrassingly crappy Citroën BX 4TC)?

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2022 Nissan GT-R Unveiled In Japan, “T-spec” Edition Coming To US Priced At $138,490

Nissan unveiled the updated GT-R range for the Japanese market which includes two limited editions – the GT-R Premium Edition T-spec and the GT-R Track Edition Engineered by Nismo T-spec. The company has also announced the GT-R T-spec, which will be available in North America from this winter in very limited numbers.

Starting with the Japanese-spec GT-R, it is going on sale in the second half of October. The T-spec variants will be produced in a total of 100 units and buyers will be selected by a ballot. The upgrades over the regular GT-R include carbon-ceramic brakes, a carbon fiber rear spoiler, a version-specific engine cover, and special badging, while they are available in two new colors – Midnight Purple and Millennium Jade.

According to Nissan, the Midnight Purple paint is inspired by color-shifting of the aurora borealis

The Premium Edition T-spec variant starts in Japan from 15,904,900 Japanese Yen ($144,595) and can be distinguished by the wider Rays forged alloy wheels finished in bronze. There is also an exclusive interior design and version-specific suspension setup.

Besides the long name, the Track Edition engineered by NISMO T-spec also gets a new roof and trunk lid made of carbon fiber for weight reduction, plus lots of Nismo goodies. This variant starts from 17,881,600 Japanese Yen ($162,565) and is the most expensive of the range. In contrast, the cheapest GT-R in Japan starts from 10,828,400 Japanese Yen ($98,444) while the regular Track Edition engineered by NISMO starts from 14,636,600 Japanese Yen ($133,065).

Just after the premiere of the updated GT-R for Japan, Nissan US also announced the GT-R T-spec edition for North America, which slots above the GT-R Premium grade and will be available in Millennium Jade and Midnight Purple. The Millennium Jade was previously offered on the limited edition R34 GT-R V-Spec II Nür, but this is the first time it is available in the US market. As for the Midnight Purple, Nissan calls it a “modern interpretation” of the Midnight Purple III from the R34 V-Spec and the Midnight Opal from the 2014 R35 GT-R.

The T-spec can be distinguished by the wider front fenders, 20-inch Rays forged aluminum alloy wheels finished in gold, carbon-ceramic brakes, carbon fiber rear spoiler, body-colored mirrors, black hood ducts, and T-spec badges. Inside we find more badges and the Mori Green color option, premium semi-aniline leather-appointed seating with pearl suede accents and a quilted Alcantara headliner.

Under the bonnet, there is the VR38DETT twin-turbo 3.8-liter V6 producing 565 hp (421 kW / 572 PS) and 633 Nm (467 lb-ft) of torque. Power is transmitted to all four wheels through a six-speed dual-clutch transmission thanks to the ATTESA E-TS all-wheel-drive system.

Nissan states that a “very limited number of models” of the T-spec will be available for sale in North America this winter, at a price of $138,490. The GT-R T-spec will join the 2022 GT-R NISMO, which is a limited run of 300 units that have already been sold out.

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How Much HP Does A BMW M3 Still Make After 173,000 Miles?

When we talk about old cars we always reference the power and performance figures that the manufacturer quoted out when the car was new. But how many of those horses are still prancing around 20 or 30 years later, and how many are ready for the glue factory?

To find out, Christian from YouTube channel Vehicle Virals headed to the dyno with an E46 M3 he managed to buy for just $3,000 last year.

Obviously, he didn’t buy himself a trailer queen for that kind of money, which if you have seen E46 M3 prices lately, you’ll know is outrageously cheap. The car had plenty of issues, including the fact it had done 173,000 miles.

Equipped from the factory with BMW’s SMG automated manual transmission, its 3.2-liter S54 straight-six had been lightly modified with an ECU tune, exhaust headers and performance intake.

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In stock form, BMW quoted 333 hp for U.S. spec E46 M3s, and theoretically the mods should add noticeably to that (the M3 CSL sold in Europe was rated at 17 hp over the standard M3).

But what kind of damage has the addition of all those miles (which we can assume were often very brutal) done? Vehicle Virals’ Christian and his friend suggest 280 hp at the rear wheels would be a respectable figure, which seems to be what M3 fans say you should expect from a stock car in good condition, representing a 16 percent drivetrain loss.

But in fact, the old M3 pulls 290 hp at 7250 on its second run, suggesting a ballpark 350 hp flywheel figure if you assume the same kind of drivetrain losses. As any tuning fan knows, dyno results can vary wildly, but that seems like a decent result given the mileage.

Would a third run yield more? It might have done, but there was so much oil smoke pouring out of the M3’s quad pipes on the second run, the owner wasn’t prepared to take the risk. The dyno numbers might suggest those 173,000 miles haven’t hurt this M3, but the piston rings could be saying something different altogether.

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2021 BMW M4 Competition Struggles With The Dreaded Moose Test

The 2021 BMW M4 is an excellent sports car to drive so, in theory, it shouldn’t have a problem tackling the moose test.

Km77 recently got its hands on the new M4 Competition and initially lined it up for the moose test at 78 km/h (48.46 mph), a speed at which a Tesla Model 3 can safely navigate the test. However, in the BMW, the rear end stepped out the moment the tester steered it to the right through the course. This sudden oversteer took out two cones and despite the driver’s best attempts to countersteer and control the slide, it took out another cone when swerving back to the left.

What’s particularly surprising about the car’s behavior at its limits is that all of the traction and stability control systems were enabled.

Watch Also: BMW M4 And M 1000 RR Meet For An Epic Drift Battle

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On its second run, the speed was reduced to 76 km/h (47.22 mph) and this time, the M4 Competition did manage to safely navigate the test, although its rear end lost traction once again. This is interesting as most other cars put through the moose test first push into understeer, rather than oversteer. Km77 completed its test by putting the M4 Competition through a slalom, which it successfully completed at 78 km/h (48.4 mph).

Needless to say, the M4 Competition’s result isn’t that great since we’re talking about what is considered one of the best (if not the best) performance coupes on the market. Surprisingly enough, the Ford Puma ST, a small sporty crossover, performed notably better than the BMW, as you can see in the following video.

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