[MUSIC PLAYING] CLINT SIMONE: Welcome to Edmunds U-Drags. Today, we've got big, fast luxury. It's a match-up between two literal heavyweights. Seriously, these cars are huge. It's the BMW M8 Competition against our very own long term Lucid Air Grand Touring. This is going to be weird. What do you mean, what's U-Drags? Well, it's a race to there and back. See, at Edmunds, we love to test cars. And this is a not-so-scientific way of doing so that we call U-Drags. We're going to take these two heavy hitters and send them all the way down the track where they're going to hit hard on the brakes, turn around, and come all the way back. That means you're getting a 1/4 mile, hard braking, handling, and a rolling start all for the price of one. And after the first race, we're going to swap drivers and lanes to make sure everybody gets a fair shot. This is an odd one. We have the BMW M8 Competition, which might just be the epitome of two-door muscle and sophistication. And this is the Lucid Air Grand Touring, a crazy powerful EV we bought with our own money. But that doesn't guarantee a win out here. To figure out which is fastest, we have our very own Edmunds hot shoes Reese. REESE COUNTS: I'm excited about this one. CLINT SIMONE: And Kurt. KURT NIEBUHR: I better win. Got to win. CLINT SIMONE: First, let's talk BMW. The M8 Competition is a big, comfy cruiser that can haul some serious ass thanks to its twin turbo V8, making 617 horsepower, and 553 pound-feet of torque. It also has all-wheel drive and a ton of M performance parts. So this thing is heavy. Next up, the Air Grand Touring. This is Lucid's mid-tier model. But it's still got 819 horses from its two electric motors. That's a lot of power. But this isn't really a performance car. It's an executive sedan that weighs a crazy 5,200 pounds. Kind of ironic for something named Air. So will this beamer show Lucid how it's done? Or will the EV newcomer show BMW that the future is now? Hi. Do you see how crazy this is? Do you want to see more insanity like this? Do us a favor and like this video and subscribe. And by the way, if you're looking to sell your car, head over to edmunds.com/sellmycar. [MUSIC PLAYING] REESE COUNTS: OK, BMW M8 Competition. Launch mode is pretty straightforward in this one. I'm going to put it in M mode, which puts it in the most aggressive setting. I'm going to deactivate stability and traction control. But I'm leaving four-wheel drive on. All right. Once that's done, I will put it in sport drive. And then all I have to do is press the brake, hold the gas down, til it tells me it's ready to go. Yeah, I don't know how it's going to do against this Lucid. That thing gets off the line quicker. But I think I might get it in braking and turn. So I'm excited about this one. KURT NIEBUHR: Well, if it's not our long-term Lucid Air. We own this. We bought it. You can read about it in our long-term blog. It's going up against an M8 Competition. Actually, going up against anything, I'm going to use launch control. So in order to do that, you put the car in the sprint driving mode, you confirm, and then to make sure that you get launch control, which brings a little bear and a flag up on the left side of your instrument panel, go into the Settings menu, the Vehicle submenu, Drive Settings, and make sure that stability control is on Full. If you turn it off, you don't get launch control. It's just the way this car works. Yeah, as far as beating that M8, I think I'm going to beat it clearly off the line and clearly through the 1/4 mile. But after that, I think this thing is just a little heavy. And the M8's going to outbreak it, out steer it, and then be too far ahead for me to make back any speed toward the finish line. So you can wish me luck if you want. I appreciate it. [MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. KURT NIEBUHR: Oh he got a good jump. A good jump. I got more power. Not much though. REESE COUNTS: That thing is fast. KURT NIEBUHR: Got to hit this braking zone. Just then stand on it. Oh boy, this thing does not like to turn at all. Give it to me. All the power. Damn. The brakes are just not good enough for this car. Just not good enough for this kind of speed. That car is [INAUDIBLE]. Not really good on the brakes. I could use some bigger brakes. REESE COUNTS: Yeah, I wonder what that thing would do with better brakes. KURT NIEBUHR: That car is fast though. I mean, you got a great jump on that car. Great jump. REESE COUNTS: I really thought that thing would take me off the line. But man, as soon as you started to get going-- KURT NIEBUHR: Yeah, once all the electrons got spooled up, this thing was moving. REESE COUNTS: You were dead set. And in my mirrors coming back, I really think you were pulling on me. Giving it a little more space, you might have gotten it. KURT NIEBUHR: It didn't look that way from my view. It looked like you were staying in the same spot. But I braked as early as I could, like right at the end of the 1/4 mile. And it just didn't slow down in time. And I came into the corner hot. And this thing just doesn't-- I mean, it's got tiny tires. You can find these things on a Hyundai Sonata. They're not wide enough for a car this heavy, or this fast. REESE COUNTS: Yeah, I think that was the race. KURT NIEBUHR: Let's switch. REESE COUNTS: Yeah, I really want to go in that Lucid now. KURT NIEBUHR: I better win. I got to win. REESE COUNTS: OK, I'm in our long term Lucid Air Grand Touring. Pretty simple. I'm just going to put it in sprint mode, which is the most aggressive setting. I'm going to leave stability control on. It just really helps off the line because this thing spins enough as it is. And then, hold the brake, and then press the accelerator until the launch control is ready. Maybe I can, I don't know, get turned around a little quicker than Kurt did. But that M8 is quick. [MUSIC PLAYING] KURT NIEBUHR: I like this car. Using launch control, obviously, we saw what kind of jump you can get when you're right on the money. My only goal is to stay close to that thing through the 1/4 mile. I know I can outbrake it. Once we get there, I know I can out turn it. But I need a little gap on the way back because that thing is not going to let up. It's going to stay fast. So yeah, I like twin turbo V8s. I like them more when they win. SPEAKER 1: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. REESE COUNTS: Holy cow. KURT NIEBUHR: Got a good jump. REESE COUNTS: Come on. come on. KURT NIEBUHR: Look at that thing. It's so fast. And now brake. Turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn. Go. I got to go. REESE COUNTS: Oh, that M8 is so quick. KURT NIEBUHR: Oh. Internal combustion still got it, man. Whoo. REESE COUNTS: Holy cow. KURT NIEBUHR: Tis a bullet. How are the brakes on that thing? REESE COUNTS: Cooked. I cannot believe how quickly that M8 gets off the line. I thought this Lucid was quick. But man. KURT NIEBUHR: This still keeps ahead of the Lucid. That's what's wild is this thing has 200 horsepower less. And it's just mobbing down the track. REESE COUNTS: You get away quicker, you can brake later. I mean, you just are able to be on the power way more than I am. And it-- and with 617 horsepower, that's-- I-- that's all you need. KURT NIEBUHR: I didn't get turned in quite as well as I would have liked to. I can't remember what I did. Maybe turned in too soon. But this thing has such a manageable power slide on the exit, where you can just let the thing hang itself out. It's never going to get too squirrelly, at least not in the four-wheel drive sport mode. It's still fine. CLINT SIMONE: Our oddball pairing contains some surprises. In race one, the BMW unexpectedly beat the Lucid off the line. However, the Lucid's mountain of torque quickly clawed its way back ahead of the BMW, hitting 60 in 3.2 seconds. Check the tape and you'll see the Air held its lead through the 1/4 mile, knocking it down in 10.9 seconds while the BMW took a full 11. But from that point, it was M power all the way. The Comp managed 0.99 Gs in the corner and kept its lead, finishing in 32.6 seconds, beating the Air by almost half a second. Brakes and tires, folks. They matter at U-Drags. In race two, things tilted even more in favor of Team Germany. Once again, the BMW launched harder, hitting 60 in three seconds dead, 1/2 a second quicker than the Air. The beamer also won the 1/4 mile at 10.8 seconds. But the Lucid took a full 11. With the BMW ahead this early on, it was game over pretty early. At the turn around, the Air upped its performance significantly, notching 0.89G. Unfortunately for Team Lucid, the M8 gripped even harder, notching 1.04 Gs and going on to leave the Lucid in a cloud of gasoline-powered dust. It finished 1.2 seconds ahead of the Lucid, tripping the lights at 32 seconds on the nose. And now, let's turn to our updated Edmunds U-Drags leaderboard. Remember, our races from last year are not shown because we had the length in the course to accommodate big heavy EVs with not so big brakes. Oh hey, Lucid. What's up? Each car's quickest run goes on the leaderboard regardless of race pairing. In this round, both cars improved on their times from earlier races. However, they maintain the same place on our board. With all that settled, let's check out the in-car camera and the data. REESE COUNTS: Oh man. That thing is fast. Ooh. KURT NIEBUHR: Oh he got a good jump. A good jump. But I got more power. Not much though. Coming by. Got to hit this braking zone just right. Stand on it. Oh boy. This thing does not like to turn at all. Give it to me, all the power. Damn. The brakes are just not good enough for this car. Just not good enough for this kind of speed. That car is-- wow. Fast. CLINT SIMONE: So did my eyes deceive me? Or did the internal combustion car get off the line quicker both races? REESE COUNTS: Yeah. KURT NIEBUHR: That's exactly what happened. CLINT SIMONE: How many times do we say, the EV gets off the line faster, the EV gets off the line faster. But it didn't. REESE COUNTS: That might be the most shocking thing of the race for me is I really expected the Lucid to pull on it straight from the go. Those electric motors-- man, that BMW. KURT NIEBUHR: Yeah, I think this lets you get all the power right away, which is usually what EVs do. This tends to kind of roll into it. Can't roll into it against anything like this. CLINT SIMONE: EVs do well in drag races, but you throw corners into the mix and look what happens. So we race gas cars, electric vehicles, we race everything here at U-Drags. And you can check out all of them right here on the Edmunds YouTube channel. Thanks for watching. [MUSIC PLAYING]
