How to build a hypercar (company) | Time for Tea

Mate Rimac has decided to spend his Monday's fielding questions. The answers are riveting...

Okay, bear with us here - this is not the sort of video we'd typically point you at. There's no tyre smoke or daredevil overtaking moves a few seconds in. It's just a car company CEO sitting in a chair talking about his firm. However, when the CEO in question is Mate Rimac, and he's gamely discussing how the eponymous manufacturer got started, it's as least as riveting as anything else we've cherrypicked for you to watch over a cuppa.

The reasons for this are myriad. For one thing, there are very few people (and practically none living) that can tell you a proper, success car company origin story. Or do it as humbly and as honestly as Mate does. He freely admits that his friends and family thought him mad, and that he was dissuaded at virtually every turn. Then there's his nuts and bolts commentary on the perils of building a hypercar, and his frank admission that Rimac got at least as much wrong is it did right to begin with.

Later he gets into the subject of global homologation, which wouldn't necessarily be enthralling if it was a mass-produced electric hatchback - but, again, when you're dealing with a 1,914hp hypercar, it's a little different. Hell, Mate even manages to make the subject of fundraising and the future of car ownership seem fascinating. Either way, if you've got even a passing interest in what it takes - i.e. brains, willpower, enthusiasm - to turn a bright idea into a real-world success, sit yourself back and let one of the industry's most exciting figureheads tell you how it is.