We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›
The Porsche Taycan Turbo S is not, by any reasonable standard, a slow car. However, everything is relative, and when lined up against a 1,111-horsepower Lucid Air, the face-melting Porsche seems just a little bit… sluggish.
Published by DragTimes on its YouTube channel and brought to our attention via InsideEVs, the straight-line racing experts put the Porsche and the Lucid through three separate races. Two standard standing-start drag races and a final rolling-start race. Before we dive into what happens, however, let’s remind ourselves of what we’re dealing with here.
In the Porsche corner, the Taycan Turbo S pumps out 750 hp and 774 pound-feet of torque with Launch Control active (power goes down to 616 hp when it isn’t), uses a special two-speed transmission, weighs 5,101 pounds according to the manufacturer, and starts at $186,350. Representing Lucid, meanwhile, is the Air Dream Edition Performance. The highest performing version of the Lucid Air puts down 1,111 hp and 1,025 pound-feet of torque, makes do with just one speed just like most other EVs, weighs a little more at 5,236 pounds, and starts at $169,000. Of course, both are dual-motor all-wheel-drive luxury electric sedans going after the Tesla Model S’s lunch.
Per their respective official spec sheets, the Air is said to hit 60 mph in 2.42 seconds while the Taycan does the same thing in 2.6. Porsche does not publish official quarter-mile drag times but, for what it’s worth, the Lucid officially covers the distance in 9.67 seconds at 148.87 mph. This isn’t strictly related to the contest at hand but, because you’re probably curious, the Lucid also bests the Porsche when it comes to top speed, apparently able to hit 168 mph whereas the Taycan maxes out at 161.
DragTimes notes that the first race was run with the Porsche at 100 percent charge and the Lucid at 85 percent juice. Per the EPA, the Taycan Turbo S is good for 201 miles of range while the Performance Lucid with the 21-inch wheels is good for 451 miles.
In the first race, the Lucid gets a slight jump on the Taycan off the line and continues to briskly build its lead all the way to the finish line. This is despite the “slower” car logging a 10.96-second quarter-mile at 128.20 mph, an extremely quick time for any factory-spec street car. (The Taycan Turbo S hit 60 mph here, by the way, at the 3.2-second mark.) On the second heat, it’s the Porsche driver that gets an earlier launch this time around but it isn’t enough to give the Taycan anywhere close to a win because the more powerful Lucid quickly pulls the German machine back in to cross the finish a couple of car lengths ahead of the Porsche.
Predictably, it’s a similar story with a rolling start. The Porsche appears to get a slight jump on the Lucid initially, but it eventually proves its might once again.
So, the quicker, more powerful car beat the slower, less powerful car on the drag strip. A hardly surprising result but a fun race to watch nonetheless. The Taycan Turbo S may have more than 90 years of pedigree behind, it but 1,111 hp is 1,111 hp. That said, these two are, at the end of the day, only racing for second place since the Lucid Air Performance previously got bested by the lighter Tesla Model S Plaid.
Moral of the story? Porsche needs to come out with a 1,200-hp Taycan Turbo S Plaid Performance Edition stat if it wants to defend the brand’s honor against these American upstarts, right?
Got a tip or question for the author? You can reach them here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com
