Drag races, with the arrival of electric cars, have become a global trend, driven by followers of electric models who find in these acceleration challenges over a quarter mile a reason to make the most of one of the characteristics of their vehicles: the standing start acceleration. A video has been published on the DragTimes YouTube channel showing a race of this type between the Lucid Air Sapphire and the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170.
Lucid Air Sapphire vs Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170: an unexpected challenge
Both American, both extremely powerful, but with completely different hearts. The first is electric, the second is combustion-powered. On an emotional level, the piston-powered vehicle takes the lead, but the battery-powered one has better chances of winning in a drag race, despite the declared figures.
Obviously, as reiterated on several occasions, drag races are not a tool for expressing an overall judgment on a four-wheeled vehicle, but they are trendy and give some indication of the performance profile, albeit not in a complete way. Will the rare American muscle car be able to keep up with the electric sedan? Before finding out how things went, let’s take a brief review of the technical specifications of the 2 models involved.
The Dodge Demon 170 is powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 engine that unleashes 1,025 horsepower (764 kW). It can cover a quarter mile in 8.91 seconds. This, at least, according to the spec sheet. The energy figures suggest that the result is also possible in real-world scenarios.
The Lucid Air Sapphire has a slightly higher power output, producing 1,234 horsepower (920 kW), the result of the work of three electric motors, one of which is located at the front. Here, thanks to all-wheel drive, the quarter mile is covered in 8.95 seconds, again according to the spec sheet, despite a weight higher than that of its rival which, however, delivers power only to the rear wheels, struggling to find grip in the first meters of its action.
Will the charismatic Dodge Demon 170 be able to counter the pace of the more anonymous family sedan on the other side of the starting line of this drag race? Unfortunately, the answer is not positive for it, forced to surrender in the two acceleration challenges to the superior effectiveness of the Lucid Air Sapphire, whose best time was 9.006 seconds (with an exit speed of 246 km/h), against 9.494 seconds (with an exit speed of 231 km/h) of its combustion-powered rival.