Petrol-head and long-time Bugatti Veyron owner Lord Pembroke can’t resist a challenge, so when the chance came to pitch his pride and joy against the latest technological tour de force from Croatia – the Rimac Concept_One electric supercar – he didn’t have to think twice.
The founder of the Wilton Classic & Supercar show – which relaunches this year as the UK’s most prestigious and exclusive annual supercar and classics gathering – took his much-loved Bugatti Veyron on a fact-finding mission to Croatia to meet Mate Rimac.
Rimac is the 28-year-old Croatian tech entrepreneur and auto industry ‘disruptor’, whose new battery-powered supercar is setting new standards for performance in the exotic car realm. It’s currently the fastest-accelerating car in the world.
Pitching the ferocious Veyron – a true ultimate supercar icon – against the electric beast was a challenge Pembroke simply couldn’t turn down, and the latest video in a series of 5 shows the incredible comparison with Pemrboke and Rimac;s official test driver, Miroslav Zrncevic, swapping steeds on-track.
“Looking forward to the technologies driving future performance will be one of the most fascinating elements of the new Wilton Classic & Supercar event,” says Lord Pembroke, “and we wanted to get to know our new friends at Rimac – builders of the world’s fastest accelerating supercar – as part of that journey of discovery. It’s fair to say the Wilton team returned from Croatia having been blown away by the technology built into the Concept_One, and awed by the single-minded dedication of the man behind it. Now we can’t wait to share some of that Rimac magic at our new event on June 3-4.”
While the electric Concept_One marks Rimac out as a far-sighted technologist, Mate is first and foremost a petrol-head. The two immediately struck up a great relationship as Lord Pembroke helped Mate fulfil his own long-held ambition of getting behind the wheel of the Veyron. In return The Earl had a rare chance to sample the game-changing immediacy, acceleration, control and handling of the quad-motor ‘torque-vectored’ Concept_One.
“My Bugatti is astonishingly fast once it’s rolling and the turbo spools up,” says Lord Pembroke, “but the real eye-opener is the instant hit of acceleration from standstill the Rimac delivers – the motors provide all their torque the moment you floor the accelerator. The other thing that really blew me away was the cornering. With individually controlled electric motors powering each wheel, the Rimac has the ultimate cornering system.”
As well as swapping cars for a high-speed blast along Croatia’s famous Adriatic Coast Road, Lord Pembroke’s visit was also an opportunity for the Veyron’s handling to be compared with the Concept_One at the track, and a tour of the factory guided by Rimac himself. Naturally the visit was filmed, and videos are being released currently on the Wilton Classic & Supercar YouTube Channel. Indeed, the visit culminated with a dawn drag race between the Bugatti Veyron and Rimac Concept_One at a secret location near the Rimac factory in Zagreb – the results of which will be revealed on video soon!
The first videos from the trip are already available to watch and share here:
• Bugatti Veyron unloaded at Rimac HQ
• Concept_One and Veyron storm the Adriatic Coast Road
• Concept_One and Veyron take to the track
There’ll be more instalments available on the Wilton Classic & Supercar YouTube channel soon, including the factory tour with Rimac, and of course that highly anticipated Veyron vs Concept_One drag race…
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