Rimac Nevera Is The Fastest Car In Reverse!

The Rimac Nevera has gone and broken another speed record. This time it’s no ordinary speed record, but one set in reverse gear. The electric hypercar has achieved a top speed of 275.74 kmph in reverse. The Rimac Nevera, driven by 22-year-old Goran Drndak, was one of the 12 Time Attack Editions finished in Black and Green. 

The speed record was set at the Automotive Testing Papenburg Centre in Germany, which has an oval layout with two 4 km long straights. This record was accredited by the Guinness World Record, using data measured by Dewesoft. The previous record of the highest top speed in reverse gear – 165 kmph – was held by Caterham 7 Fireblade for around 22 years. 

Speaking on his feat, Drndak said, “On the run itself, it definitely took some getting used to. You’re facing straight out backwards watching the scenery flash away from you faster and faster, feeling your neck pulled forwards in almost the same sensation you would normally get under heavy braking.” He also added that “despite it being almost completely unnatural to the way the car was engineered, Nevera breezed through yet another record.”

Matija Renić, Nevera Chief Program Engineer at Bugatti Rimac, said, “It occurred to us during development that Nevera would probably be the world’s fastest car in reverse, but we kind of laughed it off. Our simulations showed that we could achieve well over 150mph but we didn’t have much of an idea how stable it would be – we were entering unchartered territory.” 

In 2023, Rimac has been breaking many records. In August, the Nevera set a record for the fastest production EV at the Nurburgring with a time of 7 min and 5 seconds to complete a lap of the 20.6 km circuit. In July, the Nevera set another production EV record by completing the Hillclimb at Goodwood Festival of Speed with a time of 49.32 seconds. And in May this year, Rimac broke more than 20 acceleration and braking records on the same day, setting a 0-400-0 kmph time of 29.93 seconds. However, this was later broken by Koenigsegg who managed to do the same run in 28.81 seconds using the Regera.