The Lamborghini Revuelto may be a plug-in hybrid, but it’s absolutely no Prius Prime. It still has a 6.5-liter V12 and, with an extra three motors, it makes 1,001 horsepower. That’s almost as much power as the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. It’s also a mid-engine supercar with seating for two, and will hit 60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds and top out at 217 mph. Considering the rest of the cars that made it to Car and Driver‘s Lightning Lap this year, it should have easily walked away with the production car win. Except it got beat by an electric family sedan.
Now, to be fair to Lamborghini, the Lucid Air Sapphire isn’t just any electric family sedan. It makes a very convenient 1,234 hp and officially hits 60 mph in under two seconds, while running nine-second quarter miles. Then again, it still weighs more than 5,000 pounds and offers plenty of room for a couple of kids and their stuff. You would expect the Air Sapphire to be quick in a straight line and probably be decent on track, but it was designed to be used as a true daily driver. It shouldn’t be able to beat a 1,000-horsepower Lamborghini around VIR. And yet, it did.
The lap times don’t lie
With a lap time of 2:41.3, the Lamborghini Reveulto certainly didn’t embarrass itself. That put it ahead of the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, McLaren Artura Spider, CT5-V Blackwing, Mercedes-AMG GT63 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. Plus, it hit 168.4 mph on the front straight, faster than any other car in the competition, and pulled 1.12 g in Turn 1. Oh, and it also blew the doors off older supercar lap times, such as the Ferrari F12berlinetta and Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SV, making it the fastest V12-powered car around VIR that Car and Driver has ever tested at Lightning Lap.
While the Lamborghini did great, the Lucid Air Sapphire performed just a little better, laying down a lap time of 2:40.2 and leaving it a full second faster. The Sapphire was also four seconds faster than it was last year, due largely to Lucid now offering it with R-compound Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tires. That time also makes the Sapphire the 10th fastest car ever tested at Lightning Lap.
All that wasn’t quite enough to beat the fastest car in this year’s competition. Still, considering the only vehicle that performed better was the Ford Performance F-150 Lightning SuperTruck, something tells me Lucid is OK with that.
