Lucid Motors' electric car hits 235 mph in latest test run

[Shawn Knight]

Lucid Motors turned heads earlier this year when its Alpha Speed Car prototype reached a top speed of 217 mph during a test run on a high-speed track in Ohio.

That’s an incredibly impressive feat considering electric cars are typically revered for the spine-twisting torque they generate off the line. The effort, however, looks absolutely pedestrian compared to what the company was recently able to accomplish.

During a follow-up visit to the Transportation Research Center (TRC) facility, Lucid removed the software speed limiter to see what its prototype was truly capable of. The team also made changes to the vehicle’s air suspension to improve responsiveness under heavy loads, bolstered cooling to the front motor and swapped out the wheels for better aerodynamics.

With the restrictions removed and the changes in place, the Alpha Speed Car prototype hit a GPS-confirmed top speed of 235.44 mph. Translation – that’s really fast.

The company said in announcing the feat that this is not the final production top speed for the Lucid Air, leaving open the possibility that they might be able to squeeze even more out of it.

That said, it’s unlikely that buyers of production models would ever be able to realize these kinds of speeds due to self-imposed safety measures. Tesla, for example, governs its vehicles at a top speed of 155 mph despite the fact that they’re capable of going much faster.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/70062-lucid-motors-electric-car-hits-235-mph-latest.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Me thinks that we could be seeing an All Electric Indy 500 in addition to the regular race ..... of course, we are going to miss those fiery wrecks but maybe they can produce something with a bunch of lightning bolts spewing out ..... yeah, that should bring the crowd to their feet as well as their hair!!!

 

[captaincranky]

....[ ].... of course, we are going to miss those fiery wrecks but maybe they can produce something with a bunch of lightning bolts spewing out ..... yeah, that should bring the crowd to their feet as well as their hair!!!

Oh hell, Samsung can already do that with their phones.. And trust me, I'll bet when one o' them thar Samsung Note 7's went off in you pocket, it brought you right to standing at full attention...

 

[captaincranky]

....[ ]...That said, it's unlikely that buyers of production models would ever be able to realize these kinds of speeds due to self-imposed safety measures. Tesla, for example, governs its vehicles at a top speed of 155 mph despite the fact that they're capable of going much faster....[ ]...

Well not only that @Shawn Knight , but the millennial twits who will ultimately be the proud owners of such a monstrosity, will undoubtedly expect that it should be able to drive itself around at 235 MPH. They'll either be too scared, or simply couldn't be bothered.

I take it that neither Lucid or Tesla, piss much money away in their styling departments. But then, I'm probably just old fashioned. IMHO, if a car is gonna go 200+ miles per hour, it ought to look the part:

And not like some frakkin' turd a** Hyundai:

 

[merikafyeah]

~250 MPH give or take is about the upper limit for rubber tires. This is why you'll never see 300+MPH cars unless we develop some kind of super rubber formulation.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Another problem, you reach a point of rapidly diminishing returns for the power you put in. From Wikipedia:
"Note that the power needed to push an object through a fluid increases as the cube of the velocity.
A car cruising on a highway at 50 mph (80 km/h) may require only 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) to overcome air drag, but that same car at 100 mph (160 km/h) requires 80 hp (60 kW). With a doubling of speed the drag (force) quadruples per the formula"

 

[Raoul Duke]

I stepped on the gas and hit 235 mph! (then the battery died)
in other news, the Isle of Man TT has a race for electric motorcycles, the TT Zero, they really move and are eerily silent whilst doing so

 

[Uncle Al]

~250 MPH give or take is about the upper limit for rubber tires. This is why you'll never see 300+MPH cars unless we develop some kind of super rubber formulation.

Actually they already exist, just not for a commercial or passenger car time with one exception ..... "the beast" that uses kevlar belted tires .... not sure but I have seen the figure of $15,000 per tire ...... wonder if they make recaps???? LOL

 

[wiyosaya]

I stepped on the gas and hit 235 mph! (then the battery died)
in other news, the Isle of Man TT has a race for electric motorcycles, the TT Zero, they really move and are eerily silent whilst doing so

I was thinking the same thing, or more correctly put, I was thinking why did they not mention that the battery charge was depleted after their run?

While I dreamt of owning a supercar that could reach these speeds when I was 40-years younger, I now see articles like this as company PR trying to generate bling for those who think they cannot live without having a car that hits impractical speeds like these.

 

[captaincranky]

Actually they already exist, just not for a commercial or passenger car time with one exception ..... "the beast" that uses kevlar belted tires .... not sure but I have seen the figure of $15,000 per tire ...... wonder if they make recaps???? LOL

IIRC, the SR-71 had some pretty special tires on it. Filled with nitrogen gas and coated with aluminum. (Again IIRC) Also, the rotational speed of the ship was in excess of 160 Kts. (?)

Another problem, you reach a point of rapidly diminishing returns for the power you put in. From Wikipedia:
"Note that the power needed to push an object through a fluid increases as the cube of the velocity.
A car cruising on a highway at 50 mph (80 km/h) may require only 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) to overcome air drag, but that same car at 100 mph (160 km/h) requires 80 hp (60 kW). With a doubling of speed the drag (force) quadruples per the formula"

Which is, in essence, why you'll never in a million years, be able to slam a Hyundai Elantra through the sound barrier....

In other news, ABC's "Overnight News" ran with the story about the car going 235, and continued saying, "the Tesla only goes 155 MPH".

At which point I envisioned Elon Musk in his castle, pulling the arrow out of his heart, while stirring his cauldron, and looking into his magic mirror saying, "mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the fastest electric car of all"!

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ].....While I dreamt of owning a supercar that could reach these speeds when I was 40-years younger, I now see articles like this as company PR trying to generate bling for those who think they cannot live without having a car that hits impractical speeds like these.

The more absurd, impractical, and useless a project is, the more money it seems to siphon out of investor's pockets.

 

[ChrisH1]

235mph sounds all so super and wonderful, but you can't do that anywhere other than a racetrack, and not very many of those. It's useful for bragging rights only. Plus as mentioned you'd probably only get 10 minutes of that on a charge.

Any electric car manufacturer could probably do this - Tesla certainly could, probably all it would take would be a gearbox. But there's not much point in making cars for 0.00001% of the population, and probably not much money in it either. And we're getting to the point now where enough people buying at the top end have enough experience to know that a track car is not a good choice for everyday use, though I admit that opinion could be called to question given the stats about the number of people buying 21" rims and ruining them in potholes ...