WATCH | 2021 Rimac Nevera smashes quarter-mile world record
If there's one thing electric cars are really good at that's accelerating neck-snappingly fast in a straight line. Especially those in the breed's upper echelons, such as the Rimac Nevera.
Wearing a price tag of $2.4m (roughly R33,100,632), this Croatian supercar is armed with a 6,960-cell, 120kWh lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide battery pack powering four (one placed at each wheel) liquid-cooled permanent magnet synchronous electric motors. Combined they produce a planet-slowing 1,427kW and 2,360Nm of torque.
These enviable figures saw DragTimes driver Brooks Weiselblat recently set an unofficial production car quarter-mile record at Famoso Raceway in California.
In fine conditions on standard Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, Weiselblat reached the quarter-mile mark in 8.582 seconds with an exit speed of 269.58 km/h. This is slightly quicker than the Nevera's previous record of 8.62 seconds, which was set down a Croatian airstrip runway earlier this year. Although it must be pointed out that the latter, unlike the purpose-built Famoso Raceway, did not have a prepared surface – something that aids acceleration.
"This was our first test on a VHT (glued) surface, so we did not know what to expect," said Rimac test and development driver Miroslav Zrnčević.
"At first we were hitting less than expected ¼ mile times (8,7 and 8,8 seconds) than we did on a normal, non-prepped surface in Europe. The track temperature was 65°C and we had to do some adjustments. Our traction control learns the surface on each run and adjusts the torques on the wheels"
"After some adjustments and different tyre warm-up strategies we managed to get better results. Brooks helped with his experience of staging the car and we managed to set the world record for the fastest accelerating production car and also beat our own 1/4 mile record. Still, we are confident the Nevera has much more to give and we can go even quicker with more experience and testing on this kind of surface. We will be back."
