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ramp #63

Rimac: The Two Thousand Horsepower Bullet

The world is going crazy over this hypercar from Croatia. Our author got to drive it.

  • Text
    David Staretz
  • Fotos
    Matthias Mederer • ramp.pictures

What do you want to hear after my first test drive with the Rimac Nevera? There’s nothing to hear. Just this tantalizingly smooth electric whirr.

Rimac, hmm? How do you pronounce that anyway? There are at least three variations currently in circulation: REE-mahts, REE-mahk and REE-mahtch. Company founder Mate Rimac will answer to all of them. The Croatian innovator and entrepreneur has retained his start-up accessibility at his company headquarters in Sveta Nedelja, seventeen kilometers from Zagreb, despite the dramatic growth his company has experienced since its launch in 2009. Holy Sunday!

Want to hear the whole story? It’s already part of the great canon of automotive history. After the engine in Mate Rimac’s souped-up BMW E30 exploded during a drift race, he decided to install an electric powertrain. The result were 600 horses of power and, five versions later, an official FIA record for fastest acceleration of an electric car.

The rest of the success story can be read all over and includes the involvement of Porsche, the acquisition of Bugatti, the technical cooperation with Aston Martin (Valkyrie) and Pininfarina (Battista platform production), right up to the 2,000 hp Nevera hypercar that we are dealing with here.

»Rimac, hmm? How do you pronounce that anyway? There are at least three variations currently in circulation: REE-mahts, REE-mahk and REE-mahtch. Company founder Mate Rimac will answer to all of them.«
David Staretz

Breathtaking, this speed, which applies to pretty much everything having to do with Rimac.

A nevera is a type of storm or squall wind on the Adriatic Sea. Seems fitting. Other notes: battery capacity of 120 kWh with a voltage of 730 volts, maximum output of 1,888 hp, maximum torque of 2,360 Nm, top speed of 412 km/h, record-breaking 7:05.3 minutes around the Nordschleife, which, according to the manufacturer, the Nevera can do twice at racing speed on a single charge and with one set of tires. Last but not least, the weight specifications: 2.3 tons.

Clearly, a lot of adjustments and fine-tuning are required to make sure that this car doesn’t just self-destruct with a power-to-weight ratio of 1.2 kg per hp. The acceleration value of 1.85 seconds from zero to a hundred is already on the verge of leaving the imaginable. It reaches this speed in just 25.7 meters with an acceleration value of 15.02 m/s2.

Though the value zero must still be defined. The photoelectric sensors of modern measuring systems only start counting after a distance of about one foot (approximately 30 cm) of travel, so strictly speaking it’s a flying start, ideally on an extra rough surface. This just as an aside. One more figure: the Nevera reaches 300 km/h in 9.3 seconds. (...)

→ Read the full story in ramp #63 »Happy on the Road«.

David Staretz

David Staretz

Freelance Author
David Staretz, born 1956 in Horn. Since 1976 editor, then chief editor of Autorevue. Since 2000 freelance author: car tests for various magazines, writes and photographs travel reports and artist portraits. In his gallery, Kontor Staretz, he builds kinetic objects and puts them on display to amuse passers-by. In 2004, the book Lenk mich doch! Geschichten rund ums Auto was published by Deuticke.
ramp #63 Happy on the Road
Rimac: The Two Thousand Horsepower Bullet

ramp #63 Happy on the Road

Glücklich auf der Straße? Sowieso. Für ein anständiges Autokulturmagazin ist so ein glückliches Unterwegssein gewissermaßen nur eine bereits konzeptionell hinterlegte Pflichtveranstaltung. Nach und nach – und mit etwas Glück (was sich hier ja fein ins Thema fügt) – entwickeln sich diese Emotionen in der Summe dann vergnüglich zu einer Affektbasis, ...

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