I questioned Spyker CEO Victor Muller about 2005 and asked him why he launched a vehicle company. He responded, “Why do dogs lick themselves? Since it can.”
He then assured me that I would soon be able to drive a Spyker, which turned out to be as reliable as the promise he made a few years later to save Saab. I believe that, in order to start a car firm, one must be an extremely confident fanatic. This is important for two reasons: Firstly, I’ve been waiting for years to utilise that Victor Muller phrase, and secondly, I was recently proven incorrect. Mate Rimac is not a crazy, regardless of if he has the right to be.
At the age of 35, he owns not just a Bugatti, but Bugatti. Period. Occasionally, he sounds as amazed by this as everyone else.
[HDquiz quiz = “1180”]
“If my 20-year-old self could see a day in my life now, he would be amazed, but he would also believe that other things would have occurred,” adds Rimac. Specifically, he believed that his primary business would be automobile manufacturing, with some technical consulting on the side. In contrast, the reverse has transpired. The youngster who once motor-swapped a BMW E36 to make a tire-smoking EV now performs the same kind of behind-the-scenes sorcery for OEMs. And he is currently constructing the Rimac Nevera, which set a new EV production car speed record of 258 mph at the Papenburg test track in Germany. I’d want to install one of his SMP 900 engines in an ancient Bronco; it has 603 horsepower, 662 lb-ft of torque, and weighs 106 pounds. Compared to a 351 Windsor, this is a rather decent power density.
When Volkswagen’s head of strategy proposed that Rimac acquire Bugatti roughly three years ago, he did not respond for three weeks. He explains, “I felt I misunderstood him or that there was a problem in the matrix, so I did not answer.” Mate Rimac is now working on the first Bugatti Rimac vehicle, which will be a hybrid and not an electric vehicle.
Consider normally aspirated and 2000 horsepower overall. Intentionally dissimilar to a Nevera.
Rimac is a vegetarian who is keenly aware of humanity’s ecological follies, and he is attempting to make his operations as sustainable as possible by recycling rainwater at his new industrial site in Sveta Nedelja, Croatia, and even growing food there to feed the company’s 1900 employees. There is no fence surrounding the property, so local children can view automobiles being assembled through the windows. The factory is surrounded by fields and woodland, but the fields and forest are outfitted with power outlets and Wi-Fi for employees who wish to work outside. The roadway’s perimeter features racetrack corner curbing. According to him, decisions were guided by the inquiry, “How can a person here have the best day ever?” I will pause for a while while you Google “moving to Croatia.”
Yet, Rimac’s idealistic leanings coexist with his cynical reality, which is conceivable due to his rationality and the complexity of the universe. He is aware that he cannot alter the course of humanity by himself. And that there are inherent inconsistencies in, instance, owning a Porsche Carrera GT and making gas-powered Bugattis while still being concerned about the environmental impact of consumption. He states, “I do not know what the answer is.” “True change would be to buy two pairs of pants, but I don’t believe we’ll return to that state of affairs.”