Rimac C_Two testing ahead of 2020 launch: Update
The last EV to herald from Croatia was mind-bogglingly fast. Its replacement uses its stupendousness as a jumping off point
UPDATE - 27.11.2018
When Rimac announced at Geneva that its C_Two electric hypercar would develop 1,914hp and be capable of hitting 60mph in 1.85 seconds, we didn't blink. A comparative toddler the manufacturer might be in automotive terms, but it has already established itself as a maker of hypercars which do what they say on the tin. As a result, the development of its follow-up to the Concept One makes for fascinating reading - or viewing, we should say, as the Czech firm has gone to the trouble of making a video about its engineering process.
The attention to detail is astounding. It has to be, of course, given the colossal size of the numbers involved. The use of active aero, torque vectoring and all the other gizmos you'd need to keep a car with nearly twice the power of an AMG One under control are practically a given. Rather it is the intricacy and accuracy of the techniques employed at Rimac's HQ in Zagreb, where its team of mostly bearded personnel have the very latest technology at their disposal.
They claim to have a deviation of just 2.4% when comparing the numbers produced by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and those gathered in the wind tunnel, which we can all agree is rather good going. It's also incredibly important in an EV hypercar, which needs to be as slippery as possible - the C_Two has a drag coefficient of 0.28 - while also producing downforce to keep this 1,950kg electric missile grounded. Next it will head to the track for some real-world testing as it aims for launch in 2020. Just 20 cars are expected to result.
ORIGINAL STORY - 06.3.2018
For a start, there's the power: all 1,914hp of it. That's a lot. The McLaren Senna GTR has 825hp. The Mercedes-AMG Project One will have 1,000hp. The Bugatti Chiron has 1,500hp. Even if we give Rimac some rope here about when precisely each of the C_Two's electric motors (because there are four - one for each wheel) combine to actually output that number in practice, 1,914hp is a staggering number to write down even therotically.
So too is 1,696lb ft of torque. Which we can only assume appears instantaneously. Or, at any rate, promptly enough for the car to spirit itself from no mph to 60mph in 1.85 seconds. Again, even allowing for Rimac's one-foot rollout disclaimer, that's remarkably fast. Half a second quicker than a Chiron. And of course, Croatia's answer to Bugatti suggests that it doesn't stop there: the C_Two beating its W16-powered rival to 186mph by almost two seconds, on to a top speed of 258mph.
The manufacturer quotes 650km (around 400 miles) from a single charge. Or at least the NEDC cycle does. So you can knock at least two-thirds off that total in the real world. In fairness to Rimac, it concedes that you'll get two full laps of the Nurburgring at full power with only a negligible drop in performance. So basically a London Marathon at full tilt. That we can believe.
So charging and range not so much - but that doesn't undo the rest of the remarkable things happening here. There's still the small matter of vast 390mm Brembo carbon ceramic brake discs (front and back), four gearboxes (two single-speed at the front; two two-speed at the rear), eight on-board cameras, a lidar, six radar emitters, twelve ultrasonic sensors and an IMU sensor for claimed lever 4 autonomous driver.
Little wonder then that the C_Two produces six gigabytes of data for every hour spent driving and has the processing power equivalent to 22 MacBook Pros. Frankly we'd want 400 sensors and 72 electronic control units overseeing the Rimac All-Wheel Torque Vectoring system which is said to replace traditional ESP and TCS. It is by virtue of this 'infinitely variable' piece of kit that the car can go from 'rear-biased, driftable sportscar to a vehicle that meters traction perfectly on slippery surfaces'.
You'd probably want to see that to really believe it, frankly. And the same could probably be said of the price, which was unknown at the time of writing - although the last one (the Concept One) reputedly didn't give you much change from a million quid. So more than that then.
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electricity has long way to go...
Reminds me of the similar fact about a dragster: Dragster is sitting stationary on start line, Supercar come howling up behind it in the other lane at a steady 200mph. Dragster hits the throttle when 200mph car passes .... and catches the 200mph car after 4.7 seconds ... hauling past at 320mph by this time ... Jeeeez!
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