You probably know the Rimac Nevera. It’s the car that basically broke the internet by hitting 258 mph and making every other hypercar look like it was standing still. But before the multi-million dollar deals with Bugatti and the global fame, there was a weird, wedge-shaped anomaly from Croatia that nobody took seriously.
The Rimac Concept 1.
Honestly, back in 2011, if you told a "petrolhead" that the future of speed was a battery pack from a country with zero car-making history, they would’ve laughed you out of the room. I remember people calling it a "washing machine on wheels."
They aren't laughing now.
The Garage Project That Shouldn't Have Worked
Mate Rimac didn't start with a billion dollars. He started with a blown-up 1984 BMW E30. When the internal combustion engine gave up during a race, he didn't replace it with another oily V8. He stuffed it with electric motors.
That "Green Monster" BMW eventually set five FIA-sanctioned world records. It was the proof of concept. But the Rimac Concept 1 was the real statement. It wasn't just a converted commuter; it was a ground-up attempt to redefine physics.
Why the Concept 1 was a Technical Nightmare (In a Good Way)
Most cars use one engine and a bunch of gears. The Concept 1 decided that was too simple. Instead, it used four independent motors.
One for each wheel.
This allowed for something called All Wheel Torque Vectoring. Basically, the car’s "brain" could calculate the exact amount of power each individual tire needed 100 times per second. If you’re going into a sharp left turn, the car can literally push the outside wheels harder to rotate the body. It’s like having a giant invisible hand guiding you through a corner.
It was—and still is—insane.
The specs for the final production version (if you can call a run of eight cars "production") were staggering for the mid-2010s:
- Horsepower: 1,224 hp (913 kW)
- Torque: 1,180 lb-ft
- 0-62 mph: 2.5 seconds
- Top Speed: 221 mph
To put that in perspective, the Ferrari LaFerrari—the pinnacle of hybrid tech at the time—was putting out 950 hp. The Rimac was just... more.
The Richard Hammond Incident
We have to talk about it. You can't mention the Rimac Concept 1 without talking about the hill climb in Switzerland.
In 2017, while filming for The Grand Tour, Richard Hammond lost control after the finish line. The car flew off a cliff, tumbled down a hill, and burst into flames. Hammond crawled out just in time, but the car was a total loss.
Actually, it was worse than that.
Rimac had only built eight of these. Now there were seven.
Some people thought the crash would kill the company. Instead, it did the opposite. It proved that a tiny Croatian startup could build a car so fast it caught a professional "accidental" crasher off guard. The data from that crash actually helped Rimac refine the safety systems for what would eventually become the Nevera.
It Wasn't Just About Speed
While everyone was obsessed with the 0-60 times, the real magic was happening under the skin. Rimac couldn't find the parts they needed from suppliers. Companies like Bosch or Continental weren't interested in making bespoke parts for a guy in Croatia building eight cars.
So, Mate and his team made everything themselves.
The batteries? In-house. The infotainment? In-house. The motors? In-house.
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This "build it yourself" survival tactic turned Rimac into a tech powerhouse. Today, Porsche, Hyundai, and Aston Martin don't just respect Rimac—they buy their tech. When you see a high-performance EV today, there’s a decent chance the battery management system has Croatian DNA.
The Interior was... Weirdly Luxury?
You’d expect a prototype-adjacent hypercar to have a stripped-out racing interior. It didn't.
They used hand-milled metal and high-end leather. It felt like a Pagani had a baby with a Tesla. There were no "off-the-shelf" buttons. Even the knobs for the air conditioning were custom-designed. It was a strange mix of "mad scientist laboratory" and "billionaire’s lounge."
The Sad Reality of Owning One
You can't really buy a Rimac Concept 1 today. Even if you have the $1.6 million they usually command on the rare occasion they hit the market, you’re buying a piece of history that is notoriously difficult to maintain.
Since there are only seven left, you aren't exactly popping down to the local mechanic for a brake pad swap. You are tethered to the factory in Sveta Nedelja.
But honestly? That’s part of the charm. It’s a unicorn.
What the Concept 1 Taught the World
The automotive world is notoriously slow. It took Tesla a decade to be taken seriously by the "Big Three." Rimac did it by being so undeniable that they couldn't be ignored.
The Rimac Concept 1 proved three things:
- Electric cars don't have to be "boring" commuters like the early Nissan Leaf.
- Torque vectoring is the "cheat code" for handling heavy battery-laden cars.
- Innovation doesn't care about your country's GDP or automotive heritage.
If you’re looking at the EV market today and wondering why every luxury brand is suddenly obsessed with quad-motor setups, thank the Concept 1. It was the first car to show that the future of performance isn't just about how much fuel you can burn—it's about how much data you can process at 200 mph.
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What You Should Do Next
If you’re a fan of automotive history or looking to understand where the current EV landscape is headed, keep an eye on the upcoming Bugatti-Rimac collaborations. The Concept 1 was the spark, but the fire is just getting started.
Watch the original 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show reveal footage if you can find it. Seeing the confused faces of the German engineers as they looked at the battery modules is a masterclass in "disruption" before that word became a corporate cliché.
The era of the silent hypercar started in a garage in Croatia. We're just living in the aftermath.