Rimac Nevera Earns New Guinness World Records Title — in Reverse
Twenty-two-year-old test driver Goran Drndak earned a new Guinness World Records title for Rimac in a four-electric-motor Nevera, and this was no typical speed trial. Drndak reached 171.34 miles per hour in reverse.
Drndak smashed the previous driving-backward record set in 2001 by more than 70 miles per hour. Hosted at the Automotive Testing Papenburg facility in Germany on October 7, the event was witnessed, verified, and recorded by Guinness World Records and using data measured by Slovenian company Dewesoft.
“On the run itself, it definitely took some getting used to,” Drndak said. “You’re facing straight out backwards watching the scenery flash away from you faster and faster, feeling your neck pulled forwards in almost the same sensation you would normally get under heavy braking. You’re moving the steering wheel so gently, careful not to upset the balance, watching for your course and your braking point out the rear-view mirror, all the while keeping an eye on the speed.”
Nevera chief program engineer Matija Renić says the team recognized during development that the hypercar could be the world’s fastest car in reverse, but they “kind of laughed it off.”
“The aerodynamics, cooling and stability hadn’t been engineered for traveling backwards at speed, after all,” Renić said. “But then, we started to talk about how fun it would be to give it a shot. Our simulations showed that we could achieve well over 150 mph but we didn’t have much of an idea how stable it would be – we were entering unchartered territory.”
Rimac has carved a niche in record-setting, establishing 23 performance world records in a single day this past May. CEO Mate Rimac himself set two Guinness World Records titles with the 1984 BMW 3 Series he converted to an EV back in 2012: fastest quarter mile by an electric car and the fastest eighth mile by an electric car. At 11.85 seconds and 7.6 seconds, respectively, Rimac has shown massive improvements to those times with the Nevera.
You Might Also Like