Rimac Concept One Vaporizing Supercars One at a Time

By Tony Markovich - August 18, 2016

rimac

Croatia only has a handful of gold medals at this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but it has a ringer off site that is slowly picking off every other country that comes at it. That ringer is the Rimac Concept One.

Rimac has been flying relatively under the radar. Well, comparatively. Considering this is an all-electric, variable-motor-per-wheel supercar that makes 1,088 horsepower, 1,180 lb-ft of torque, and has all of that torque at zero mph, it’s pretty surprising it hasn’t been in the center of more discussion. This isn’t an extremely reliable metric, but of the dozens and dozens of automotive journalists I follow on Twitter, only four of those follow the company, and the account has less than 3,300 followers. That’s insane, especially considering the results of the video below.

Part of that has to do with the fact that the production version was just unveiled in March of this year, and only eight of them will be made. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the spectrum, electric car giant Tesla has been revving up production on the Model S with new and improved versions, selling its new Model X SUV, and preparing to launch its first affordable mass-market vehicle with the Model 3.

If you asked the population what the fastest electric car is, a huge majority would just assume Tesla. Wrong. Wayyyyy off. In a head-to-head race between the Model S (in Ludicrous mode) and the Rimac, the S might as well have just stayed at home and tried to catch some Pokemon. From the first .01 of a second, the Rimac is superior and finishes like Usain Bolt finished in the 100 meter.

The second competitor at the track was the Ferrari LaFerrari. The facts that it’s also a supercar, much lighter, and comes with the pedigree of possibly the most famous supercar company in the world, it’s likely suited to be a much better competitor. And the drag race was better, but it still wasn’t even close, really, in either of the two runs. The bug-like Ferrari gets squashed with a simple press of the Rimac’s pedal.

Now, who’s next? We’re looking at you, Porsche and Koenigsegg.