Comparing the performance of a thoroughbred mid-engine sports car like the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with a luxury sedan would have been a useless exercise prior to the rise of electric vehicles.
But EVs have changed the game, largely thanks to their neck-snapping acceleration enabled by the instantly available peak torque. We now have a pickup truck that does 0-60 in 3 seconds – the Rivian R1T – and luxury sedans that cover the same sprint in under 2 seconds – the Tesla Model S Plaid and Lucid Air Sapphire.
For the latest episode of their U-Drag web series, our friends from Edmunds Cars wanted to see whether a battery electric luxury sedan can keep up with one of the hottest sports cars on sale today, the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06.
They chose to pit the mid-engine Corvette Z06 against the Lucid Air Grand Touring and see which one does better on their U-Drag course, which includes a quarter-mile drag race, a braking area, a handling area where the cars do a u-turn, and a quarter-mile roll race.
Before delving into the video, here's a short summary of the two contenders' specifications. The Corvette Z06 is powered by a mid-mounted 5.5-liter V8 that delivers 670 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque. Hooked to an 8-speed automatic transmission driving the rear wheels, the flat-plane crank V8 enables the Corvette Z06 to rocket from zero to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds.
The Lucid Air Grand Touring features a dual-motor AWD powertrain producing 819 hp and 885 lb-ft of torque. That gives it a massive power and torque advantage on the Corvette Z06, but the trade-off for the big battery powering the big Lucid is weight.
The EV tips the scales at 5,226 pounds, making the Corvette Z06 seem a featherweight in comparison at 3,681 pounds. This should mean that the two cars are quite evenly matched in this battle, but are they?
Well, without spoiling the video for you, we'll just say that the Lucid does not shine in the braking and cornering departments compared to the Corvette Z06. That's not surprising seeing as these two cars have completely different purposes and target very different audiences. They did put up a cool and exciting fight nevertheless.
