Rimac Automobili founder Mate Rimac claims the technical director of a global car company crashed a Rimac Nevera prototype after activating the 1427kW hypercar’s ‘Drift Mode’.
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The founder of Croatian electric car manufacturer Rimac Automobili claims a prototype of his Nevera hypercar was destroyed at the hands of an overly exuberant executive from a major automaker while using the car’s ‘Drift Mode’.
In an interview, Mate Rimac, 34-year-old founder of Rimac Automobili, told 2016 Formula 1 world champion turned influencer Nico Rosberg how one of Rimac Nevera’s prototypes was smashed by a CTO from a major automotive company.
According to Mate Rimac, the anonymous CTO activated the Rimac Nevera’s ‘Drift Mode’, disabling the front motors and sending over 700kW to the rear wheels, before losing control and destroying the prototype.
“There was a CTO of a big, big car company, one of the biggest car companies in the world,” Mate Rimac told Nico Rosberg in a video posted on Youtube.
“(On) the first lap he was in the car on a race track, he said, ‘I go straight into drift (mode).’
“First corner, he loses the car… and takes three pole positions.
“Nothing happened to it, but the car was totaled: the third post was removed and the upper part was like a spike.
“The car stopped on the pole with the battery directly on the nail.”
While the Rimac Nevera prototype was written off, the CTO escaped unscathed.
Rimac first rose to fame in 2017 when TV personality Richard Hammond crashed a Rimac Concept One.
Hammond was filming a segment for Series Two of the grand tour in a Swiss climbing event when he lost control of the car, it went off the road and down an embankment.
The Rimac Concept One subsequently caught fire and reportedly burned for five days due to its battery splitting, while Hammond suffered a broken leg.
It took Rimac more than three years to develop Refrigerator, from its first introduction as the C_Two Concept in 2018 to the reveal of the production-ready Refrigerator in 2021.
Rimac received an 80 million euro ($116 million Australian) investment from South Korean car giants Hyundai and Kia in 2019, with the two taking a joint 12 percent stake in the Croatian hypercar maker.
In May 2022, Hyundai and Kia cut ties with Rimac after German automaker Porsche increased its stake in the Croatian company.
Called Bugatti-Rimac, the joint venture is 55 percent owned by Rimac, while the remaining 45 percent is held by Porsche.
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