2026 Rivian R1S Quad vs Lucid Dream vs Porsche + Audi + Rover SV — Cammisa Ultimate Drag Race Replay

There are three existential fights going on in the automotive industry right now. It is gasoline versus electricity, the traditional car companies versus the startups, and then SUVs versus, well, everything else. So I say let's settle all three of these little arguments with one good old-fashioned drag race. Let's go. If you drive your cars on the road, it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when something will happen. Hagerty's Guaranteed Value Insurance lets you agree on your classic car's value before something happens, not when it's already too late, so your car can get back out on the road where it belongs. There are two SUVs here that burn gasoline, the Audi RS Q8 Performance and the Range Rover Sport SV. So let's start out the battle with the old-school SUVs in an old-school, two-up, head-to-head drag race. The RS Q8 is a mechanical twin of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, the world's quickest accelerating gas-powered SUV. It makes 631 horsepower from its twin-turbo V8. The Range Rover Sport SV uses a V8 also from the BMW M5, the quickest wagon in the world. This SUV actually weighs less than the BMW because the M5 is made of lead, and the Rover ditches its hybrid system. The Rover also has carbon fiber wheels, something we never thought we'd see on an SUV. The two dinosaur burners make within 5 horsepower of one another, they have the same 8-speed automatic, and they have similar curb weights. More importantly, they're both lined up and ready to go. Audi takes the win, and by about three car lengths. But this was a fascinating race won entirely on powertrain programming. The Rover doesn't seem to allow full power in first gear, but the Audi explodes off the line, pulling almost twice the peak Gs that the Rover does. And then, while the Audi barely cuts power on any of its quick, smooth shifts, the Rover's acceleration drops to almost zero for what is then a slow, deliberate shift into second gear, which lasts only 8 tenths of a second before it shifts again into third, this time with a kick in the pants so violent that it's the only time the Rover experiences over a G in acceleration. Remember, the two share the same transmission, but it feels like the Rover spends more time shifting than it does accelerating. That costs the Brit a full half second on the run to 60 miles an hour. Once it's finally in gear long enough to let the powerful BMW V8 stretch its legs, the Rover is actually quicker than the Audi. It may land in second place, but it has a one mile an hour trap speed advantage, so it's starting to reel the Audi in. What a great race. And now the electric cars. First up, the Rivian. This may not look new, but it is. This is the all-new second generation R1S, and if you look really closely, you might be able to tell it apart from its predecessor. But the most important thing about this one is its color. Blue, turquoise, aquamarine. And I'm not colorblind, I'm talking about the brake caliper, the badge there, and a badge in the back that says quad. Because that tells you everything you need to know. Because it means this is the new quad-motor R1. It has four brand new Rivian-designed and built motors, with a total output of 1,025 horsepower and 1,198 pound-feet of torque. A huge increase from the old quad's 835 horsepower and 908 pound-feet. You can absolutely bet that the motivation for this additional power came from our last race, where the Tesla Cybertruck beat out that old R1 by a huge seven-tenths of a second. Speaking of grudge matches against Tesla, Lucid's entire company is one, and its new SUV is called Gravity, which is a great name for a thing that weighs 755 pounds less than its competition. The regular Gravity Grand Touring makes 828 horsepower and 909 pound-feet of torque, but not this one. This is the limited-availability Dream Edition, which makes no more torque, but a lot more power. Rivian needs four motors to make 1,025 horsepower. Lucid makes 1,070 from just two. Which just means each of the Lucid's motors makes as much power as both of the Porsche Macans combined. Rapping the traditional automakers, however, the Macan EV is a lightweight, not in performance, but in mass. It weighs 795 pounds less than the Lucid, 1,550 less than the Rivian. So it's lightweight, and it has a turbo badge. And since it has a turbo, it has boost and therefore can have overboost, so the Macan EV has an overboost function that'll deliver 630 horsepower for up to 10 seconds. And yes, it is stupid that an EV has a turbo badge on it. You know what's also stupid? The fact that each one of these cars can break every speed limit in the country from a standstill in about five seconds. Which is why you need a Valentine 1 radar locator, so you can find the radar before it finds you. Because it always does. Oh, race, race, let's go. Go. Bye-bye. Three, two, one, launch. My god, there is so much to unpack here. Let's start with the similarities. They're both green, and they both cross the line in 10 and a half seconds. And that is where the similarity ends. Off the line, it's not even close. Rivian's new launch mode drops its front suspension for better grip up front. Yet the R1S still manages to spin its front Michelin Pilot Sport Performance summer tires for about a half a revolution. And then it yeets right the F off and never looks back. The 6,800-pound squared-off brick hits 30 miles an hour in just 1.2 seconds. And 60 in just 2.6. And though the rounded Lucid is squarely in the rearview mirror, it doesn't stay there for long. The Lucid's launch is actually kind of soft, especially compared to the Rivian's. By 30 miles an hour, it is two-tenths of a second behind the R1S. By 60, the Lucid is four-tenths behind the Rivian. So back there, it really looked like the R1S was going to win big time. But it's what happens after 60 miles an hour in this thing that is just plain nuts. The Lucid holds just under a G of acceleration from launch all the way to 60 miles an hour, and then actually gains slightly and peaks around 70 miles an hour. From there, it finally starts to relent. But it's still pulling a half a G at 100 miles an hour. And it's reeling in the Rivian at a genuinely alarming pace. Launch mode raises the Rivian's normal 110-mile-an-hour speed limiter to 130, but its computer starts to pull power early as it approaches that speed. Final number at the line? 128 miles an hour, with acceleration dropping to almost zero. Meanwhile, the Lucid is still accelerating as hard at 130 miles an hour as a Volkswagen GTI can manage at 30. It blows by the Rivian going a positively stupid 11 miles an hour quicker. It crosses with a trap speed identical to a McLaren 750. 139 miles an hour. The most accurate description of the Lucid's highway speed acceleration? Terrifying. Hey, back here. Five and a half car lengths back. Listen, all of this may make the Porsche Macan Turbo EV look slow, but that is not the case. In fact, other than those two rockets, this is the quickest accelerating SUV we've ever tested. It is quicker even than its big brother, the Cayenne Turbo GT, which actually has a turbo. Two of them, in fact. Cayenne Turbos GT. More importantly, this new electric Macan was 1.3 seconds and 17 miles an hour faster than last year's fastest Macan, the GTS. That is a hell of an improvement. The Macan's launch is Porsche picture perfect and also neck-breakingly certifiably insane. It nearly matches the Rivian's run to 30 miles an hour. By 60, the violence has faded slightly, and it crosses that mark in 2.8 seconds ahead of the Lucid, but behind that Rivian, which it never catches. I hate to be the guy that points this out, but the representative for the internal combustion SUV is 100 feet behind the Porsche. But it's not like the Audi RS Q8 is slow. It is literally a Lamborghini fast because its 11.6 second, 117 mile an hour performance is a dead tie to the Lamborghini Urus Performante, which is literally a Lamborghini. And that shouldn't be all that surprising because underneath, this is exactly the same car, just without the Lamborghini badge, or the price tag, or the ugly styling. The Audi tries its best, allowing lots of boost to get off the line quickly, and then it slam shifts every gear. It also serves another purpose for us here, to show just how much faster the Rivian has gotten, because the last quad motor R1S tested would have finished two tenths of a second behind this Audi. The race between the Lucid and Rivian was so close that we couldn't help but want to do it again. But we thought, how could we add some perspective? Well, how about the quickest accelerating internal combustion sedan the world has ever seen? Bonus race starts now. This is the Porsche Panamera Turbo SE Hybrid. And in our last episode, which you absolutely should watch, it easily dispensed with the BMW M5 Wagon, the Audi RS6 Avant, and the Mercedes S63 AMG E-Performance. And now let's watch it leave the SUVs for dead, or die trying. At the finish line, the Rivian is tickling its speed limiter at 128 miles an hour. The Panamera is climbing steadily as it approaches 131, and the Lucid is pulling like a Boeing at 139 miles an hour. All three cars crossed the quarter mile line within four hundredths of a second, and all of their times round to 10.5 seconds. So, by the clock, this is a triple tie between the fastest gas-powered four-door in the world and two unlikely family trucksters. Well, we have some answers. Today, at least, electricity beats gasoline, the traditional automakers get beaten by the startups, and an SUV van beats a sedan. We also have a three-way tie where two electric SUVs from startups tie the quickest accelerating internal combustion sedan ever that happens to come from a traditional automaker. Uh-oh, I think we've settled absolutely nothing. The three existential battles continue, which can only mean one thing. Job security for this guy.