Lickfold and company have also settled on a base mechanical valving for the electronically controlled Bilstein dampers, which largely function without any electronic valve adjustment in the base Smooth driving mode.
They've so far dialed in the specification of the purely mechanical bits-those things I used to tune-and the internal construction of the bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. Chassis and vehicle dynamics director David Lickfold and his team have visited numerous tracks and proving grounds. This is the first time the Sapphire has tackled VIR's Grand Course, and a test crew must achieve a certain level of track familiarity before driver tuning can give way to vehicle tuning.īut this is far from the Sapphire's first tuning session. They seem gratified to corroborate my feedback with their own, which is important because it's crucial to differentiate between what the car is doing and what a driver is doing. Here he shows the Lucid crew the ideal burping technique. After that, we'll consider making some changes.Īuthor Edmunds, a former chassis engineer, is also a dad. With a full lap under my belt, it's time to return to the pits for a debrief.
The Sapphire seems to love Roller Coaster, but as I exit Hog Pen and set my sights on the Front Straight, the car walks toward the left edge of the track, robbing me of the confidence to plant my right foot. "Whoa! That was a big twitch." There's another slight power interruption when I graze the low curb at the exit of Spiral, but the car reasserts itself through the rest of the Infield. Then it's off to Spiral and the diving left-right combination that comes just over a blind crest. The car bends through the low-speed horseshoe smoothly with perhaps a hiccup at the exit. The right-hand detour into VIR's inner loop comes up quickly, but the Sapphire's humongous 10-piston front brake calipers squeeze trackworthy carbon-ceramic rotors to haul this cruise missile smartly down to turn-in speed without a hint of squirm or squiggle. Next, the tight Oak Tree corner offers another light dose of apex clobbering. More care and selective curb skimming work better here. Snake is one such section, and the Lucid Air Sapphire prototype I'm piloting glides over the concrete serrations as if built to do nothing else and then rockets toward the Climbing Esses.
You can't let some curbing stand in the way of a good lap time, particularly at Virginia International Raceway, where it's best to clip almost as many as possible to set a competitive lap. From the April 2023 issue of Car and Driver.
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