Watch This Wacky Track Comparison! 1,234-HP Lucid Air Sapphire vs. McLaren 750S Supercar
It's a matchup that makes more sense than you might think.
0:00 / 0:00
A McLaren versus a Lucid isn’t your average comparison test, but then again these aren’t your average cars. There is a little method behind our madness, though. The first time we got our hands on the Lucid Air Sapphire was for the recording of the first episode of Head2Head Drag Race. Lucid kindly brought out its rolling development car, which quickly dispatched the almighty Ferrari SF90 through the quarter mile, and while the Sapphire was very much still in development back then, we knew it was going to be special. Three electric motors, all-wheel drive, and a monstrous 1,234-hp, 1,430-lb-ft powertrain. It’s more than worth mentioning that during that test the Sapphire development car laid down the quickest quarter mile time in MotorTrend testing history.
We made this point to Lucid when, some months later, the company offered us seat time in a production version of the 2024 Air Sapphire. We wanted to conduct a comparison test with it, but we hadn’t decided which car should challenge it.
Of course, the Air Sapphire’s natural rival is the Tesla model S Plaid with 1,020 hp and 1,050 lb-ft of torque. Both cars are trimotor EVs, both fit for a driver plus four passengers. Lucid agreed with this idea—but in the same breath its reps made a surprising suggestion.
Why Not Compare It Against a McLaren?
So confident was Lucid that it had a fantastic-handling vehicle on its hands, indeed it wanted us to compare it against a car from a marque at the cutting edge of supercar development.
At the time, our desire to compare it against the Tesla won out, and we spent a week comparing the pair—not just down the quarter mile but across the half mile, as well as in many other categories including range and livability.
However, the idea of a Lucid versus McLaren comparison stuck in our head, so when this year’s MotorTrend Performance Vehicle of the Year program rolled around (congrats to the BMW M2) and McLaren provided a 750S for that evaluation event, the time was upon us.
The 2024 McLaren 750S Coupe sits below the 765LT in the pecking order and is the spiritual successor to the quite sublime McLaren 720S. The 720S is a phenomenal machine and arguably didn’t need to be “improved.” It makes 710 hp and boasts some of the most satisfyingly comprehensive steering, suspension, and brakes ever experienced on a road car. However, when it came time for McLaren to put a bow on it, the company happily obliged by pulling 176 pounds of mass from the 720S, strapping on a few bits from the Senna hyper track car, and jacking up the price. The result was the arguably too-extreme-for-the-road 765LT with 755 hp. Now we have the 750S, which walks the performance line between the 720S and 765LT. After driving it, we can tell you it delivers phenomenally rare joy to anyone fortunate enough to give it a rip.
Meanwhile, we know how incredible the Lucid Air Sapphire’s straight-line performance is, and it handles damn well, too, especially for something of its bulk. But comparing it with a conventional supercar as devastatingly comprehensive as the 2024 McLaren 750S is an altogether different challenge.
Check out our video to see how it all went down.
