The 1914-horsepower Rimac C_Two just wrapped up crucial dynamic tests at Nardó

Rimac Automobili completed the 1914-horsepower hyper-EV’s month-long track tests, both at home in Croatia, and at the famous Nardò Technical Centre in Southern Italy. This success comes after having already crashed a single C_Two prototype six times in the name of global homologation.

The high-speed oval was built by Fiat in 1975 and has been used by a number of other brands in the ensuing years before ending up in Porsche’s ownership in 2012. Endurance and top speed records have been set here by the likes of Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Koenigsegg and Bugatti—Nardò played an important role in the Veyron’s development.

Since Porsche bought a 15 percent stake in Rimac Automobili, Nardò’s gates were opened for additional development of the C_Two. All of this development is crucial as we get closer to the production car’s premier at the Geneva Motor Show and its first customer deliveries at the end of next year. The C_Two prototypes covered thousands of miles on track, with the team focusing mostly on driver feedback regarding steering, brake feel, and throttle response. With all the data at hand, Rimac’s tire partner Pirelli will now fine-tune their tire compound for the production car, while damper supplier KW will adjust their settings to reach Rimac’s performance and comfort level targets. All this proves that while simulation can get you further than ever these days, it will never make real-world testing obsolete.

Rimac founder and CEO Mate Rimac had the following to say about their ambitions:

“We are working hard to shape this car exactly how we imagined it: a new breed of hypercar that unlocks extreme performance of the electric drivetrain and a new driving experience for the driver. At the same time, it will be a technical masterpiece from an engineering point of view. The C_Two will have a new driver feel, highly-communicative handling, and first-class dynamics that will define our new car—we want this car to be intuitive and usable, yet sharp and capable. This process of testing and refinement is crucial to ensure we deliver on our promises—driving the C_Two will be something quite different.”

If for some reason the C-Two’s styling doesn’t suit your taste, you can always consider the equally quick Pininfarina’s Battista, which is basically a Rimac C_Two re-bodied and upholstered by Pininfarina’s team in Italy.

So far, it seems that the Rimac C_Two’s most direct competitor will be the Lotus Evija, an equally powerful electric hypercar tuned by the industry’s foremost handling experts from Hethel. However, given the differences between Rimac’s self-made and Lotus’ Williams-designed chassis and powertrain, it’ll be interesting to see which one performs better. With the most advanced torque-vectoring capabilities and nearly 2000 horsepower onboard both machines, we’re confident that neither one will be described as “boring.”

Rimac wasn’t allowed to set up a professional photo shoot at Nardò due to the track’s confidential nature, but the following images should still give you an idea about the hardware involved:

Next stop: Geneva.