HomeCar CultureLucid Air Adventure: Day 3

Lucid Air Adventure: Day 3

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Our writer Andy Reid is driving a Lucid Air for his time in Arizona for auction week, you can follow the second part of his journey here.

Day 3 with the Lucid Air Grand Touring started out like day 2: with frost on the windshield. This is again something that is new for me in Arizona during auction week, and not a reason I go to Arizona in January. Happily, due to the instant-on heater the windshield was defrosted quickly, and I made my way to Bonhams at the Westin Kierland to give the first of two auction tours for the day.

The Lucid arrives at Bonhams

The Air is a very serene place to start the day, very quiet including a lack of wind noise. I have now completely mastered the art of one pedal driving, it is just a matter of lifting off to slow down for traffic or to stop at a light. The seemingly endless torque available is also something I am starting to take for granted and I will likely have to adjust to driving gas-powered vehicles after a week behind the wheel of this amazing car.

I took a walk-through of the Bonhams auction layout and planned the tour. At the same time, I ran into a number of friends, reexamined a few cars that I am planning to bid for on Friday, and then waited for the participants to show up. All 40 were right on time and I gave the tour of the auction, explaining my history of buying and selling at Bonhams as well as my 22 years of experience with the staff there. I really like this auction and the cars they are offering this year are a nice mix of affordable all the way to top tier multi-million-dollar collector cars.

Trent testing out the Lucid

After the tour I ran into my friend Trent Abbot from Hagerty. He wanted to see the Lucid, so I gave him a quick walk around tour of the car and had him sit in the driver’s seat. He, like everyone else I showed the car, immediately noticed the incredible fit and finish of the car, particularly liking the dash and control layout. After this I got into the Air and headed as quickly as I could across town to the Arizona Biltmore where RM Sotheby’s is located for my 2:30 pm tour.

I dropped the car at the Biltmore valet, making sure he knew how to operate all the controls, and went over to the RM bidder registration desk to get my credentials as well as to the media desk to get my pass. Much like Bonhams, the customer service at RM Sotheby’s is terrific and all the people I have worked with there are amazing.

I ran into Brad Phillips from RM Sotheby’s and found out he would be joining me for the tour. This was great news as I have known Brad for almost 20 years from going on rallies, to being my insurance test study buddy, and knowing each other so well makes us a great team for these types of events.

After looking over the layout of the auction and planning my route, Brad and I met the 45 attendees. I gave them a quick overview of the way RM does business and my experience there as a buyer and a seller, with the highlight being that I have sold and helped sell more than 200 cars at RM including the Janis Joplin Porsche 356 cabriolet, all for excellent money. Aside from selling my own cars, I have brought clients to buy and sell their own.

We talked about 25 of the cars on offer at the sale, answered a lot of great questions, and explained how nice the offering of supercars they had was, and how these cars are very hot in the market today.

After the tour I made plans to meet up with Brad later, as we had a dinner to attend. I let him know that I was driving a Lucid and offered him a ride which he quickly accepted.

After spending another few hours looking at the cars offered, including a 1971 Iso Grifo that I am planning on bidding on the following day, I met Brad, and we headed over to valet parking to retrieve the Lucid.

When the car arrived, I surprised Brad by having him get in to drive it to dinner. Now Brad Phillips has driven and owned as many different cars as I have but he was immediately staggered by the performance offered by the Lucid Air.

Looks like Brad is a Lucid natural!

What is more impressive is that we initially had the car set in cruise mode, which is the lowest performance mode the Lucid offers. At a light I switched it to the highest performance setting and told him to hit it hard. The sheer performance and instantaneous velocity of the car blew his mind, much like it did for me and we laughed our way to dinner.

After dinner, I drove Brad back to the Biltmore and then headed back to my own hotel for the night.

The day ended with a total of 126 miles driven, no issues, and 255 miles left on the battery. Yes, the sprint mode does take away from the battery life more than cruise mode. I know I have only really alluded to the amazing performance offered by the Lucid Air Grand Touring, but I will cover more of what feels like to drive the car at maximum performance in the next segment.

Andy Reid
Andy Reid
Andy Reid's first car, purchased at age 15, was a 1968 Fiat 124 coupe. His second, obtained by spending his college savings fund, was a 1966 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2. Since then, he has owned more than 150 cars—none of them normal or reasonable—as well as numerous classic motorcycles and scooters. A veteran of film, television, advertising and helping to launch a few Internet-based companies, Reid was a columnist for Classic Motorsports magazine for 12 years and has written for several other publications. He is considered an expert in European sports and luxury cars and is a respected concours judge. He lives in Canton, Connecticut.

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