LIGHTNING SPEED

Cracking 0-100 km/h in less than two seconds and with an EV record top speed of 412 km/h, the Nevera's numbers are simply stupendous. But how electrifying is it behind the wheel?

- Steve Sutcliffe

You can tell an awful lot about the Rimac Nevera in the first 200 m. Not how barkingly fast it is or how far it moves the game on in the rarefied world of the hypercar - those realisations come later - instead, how polished it is purely as a product. How well built it is, how sweetly matched the weighting and gearing of its steering seems, how synchronised its throttle and brake pedals feel, how easily you can climb in and out, how clearly you can see out of it, how beautifully damped it is and how refined it is at everyday speeds.

Even after 20 seconds, you can tell the Nevera rides perfectly for a car of this type. You can tell, too, how fundamentally well resolved it is from the way it filters all the unwanted stuff that goes on beneath your hands and backside, creating sound but not noise as it glides across the landscape ... there's a world of difference between those two things. From every move it makes in the first few moments you spend in it, the Nevera feels like the product of a marque that has been honing its craft for decades, not just a few years.

Yet, here it is, a brand new hypercar from what is still a largely unheard-of carmaker that originates not from Germany or Italy (or England) but Croatia - and it's pronounced "REE-mahts". If the revelations it unleashes in the first few hundred metres are enough to fry the space between your ears, they are nothing compared with what is to come. Trust me, when you finally let it rip, the Nevera does stuff no other road car can get anywhere near right now not even close and not only in a straight line, but also around corners and under braking. The box of secrets it contains is as wide and deep as it gets. After several days with this extraordinary car, I am still struggling to get my head around it.