Stunning $950k Rimac Concept_One wows Monaco

Another week, another supercar from some obscure ‘carmaker’ you’ve never heard of before. Well, this time around it’s a slightly different case as the swoopy coupe pictured alongside – a Croatian-built device known as the Rimac Concept_One – already took its bows last September at the Frankfurt motor show.

It may have escaped our attention that time around, but it’s definitely on our radar now after making a second appearance at the Top Marques show in Monaco, where its creator announced it would build and sell 88 examples at a price of €742,000 (that converts to a tad over $950k in our money, but you’d need to virtually double this figure to arrive at a hypothetical Australian price).

The exorbitant pricetag was apparently enough to pique the interest of His Royal Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, who popped down to the Rimac stand to eyeball the stunning Concept_One.

Where the Rimac differs from the run-of-the-mill supercar is that it’s propelled by a quartet of electric motors that churn out a Bugatti Veyron-bashing 800kW and a simply stupefying 3800Nm of torque.

It’s therefore mildly surprising that the 1650kg coupe’s performance stops some way short of the Veyron, sprinting to 100km/h in 2.8sec on its way to a v-max of 305km/h.

You could theoretically extract similar performance from the latest Nissan GT-R, saving yourself a large wodge of cash in the process, but of course that’s not the point as the Rimac will be targeted at an entirely different demographic.

The electric supercar offers an impressive 600km driving range on a single charge, so on paper it stacks up as a realistic grand tourer that you could, for example, use for a brisk dash across Croatia.

Its tyre-frying potential (no road-legal rubber we know of can stand up to 3800Nm) necessitated the development of a specialised tyre by Vredestein (dubbed the Ultract Vorti), and apparently legendary Italian car stylist Giugiaro also had a hand in the design of the new hoops. The Ultrac Vorti worn on the Concept_One are sized 245/35R-20 (front) and 295/30R-20 (rear).

Visually, the Concept_One gets a nod of approval from us, and we weren’t surprised to learn its voluptuous curves were penned by a team of former Pininfarina crayon wielders.

Meanwhile, the sumptuous leather interior was crafted by Bulgaria’s Vilner, while HRE developed the eye-catching monoblock alloys.

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