Rimac Nevera Smashes Tesla's Quarter Mile Record

At some point soon, doctors are going to tell automakers, especially EV automakers, to lay off the acceleration. It can't be good for your body to shoot from 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, or cross the quarter mile in a record breaking 8.582 seconds with a trap speed of 167.5 mph. Organs go weird places when experiencing that type of acceleration.

But Mate Rimac and his latest Nevera EV supercar don't have time for that nonsense. On the way to the Monterey Car Week festivities the company brought the car to Famoso Raceway in California to set an official quarter mile time after logging an unofficial time of 8.62 seconds on a Croatian airstrip in June.

The Nevera's stats are staggering. It has four motors, one for each wheel, making a total of 1,914 hp. That's like nine times the power of a VW GTI. It wore its standard Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires for the feat, the same ones that come on it from the factory.

The difference here was that this strip was prepared, meaning organizers put a compound called VHT on the ground to help the cars keep their grip. That's what dropped that time from 8.6 to 8.5. The run was the 11th of the day in quick succession, says Rimac, "without any performance degradation between the runs."

This is bad news for Tesla, which just took the production car quarter mile record a few weeks ago. First with Jay Leno at the wheel with a time of 9.24 seconds, then the Model S Plaid dropped a few more clicks to 9.08 seconds with a racer in Madison, Illinois.

In fairness to Tesla, the Rimac has almost twice as much power and way less weight. It would be insane to think that EV sedan would have a chance at the Croatian champ. Looking at it that way, it might make the Tesla's time even more impressive. Regardless, don't do this on public roads.