At a spectacular 275.74 kmph, this is the world's fastest car in reverse drive

Smashing records has become a matter of habit for Rimac Nevera and so, one more may not seem like much. And almost flying at 275.74 kmph may also not seem to be out of character for the electric supercar either. But wait, this speed was achieved by the Nevera while being driven in reverse.

Not new to breaking records, the Rimac Nevera recently shattered a 20-year-old fastest acceleration record for a vehicle being driven in reverse. The Guinness World Records officially bestowed the Nevera with the title after it raced to 275.74 kmph in reverse drive sprint, outpacing the previous best speed of 165.08 kmph by a Caterham 7 Fireblade.

Even the extremely exclusive clientele of the Rimac Nevera is highly unlikely to drive at lightning speed in reverse but the fact that one particular unit of the supercar did manage to touch 275 kmph in a record-beating attempt goes to once again underline the sheer madness that this supercar is capable of.

But those familiar with previous madness of automotive excellence that Nevera has etched may not be entirely surprised with another feather in the form of a record that is now added to the resume. The Rimac Nevera, after all, has no gears and the four individual motors either go backwards or forwards without even the smallest iota of mechanical interruptions. What this also means that as per the Croatian company, the Nevera can do 0 to 100 kmph in 1.81 seconds regardless of whether it is going forward or in reverse. It can go from 0 to 200 kmph in 4.42 seconds and again in reverse too. “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. The aerodynamics, cooling and stability hadn’t been engineered for travelling backwards at speed, after all," says Matija Renic, Nevera Chief Program Engineer at Bugatti Rimac. Test driver Goran Drndak adds, "On the run itself, it definitely took some getting used to. Despite it being almost completely unnatural to way the car was engineered, Nevera breezed through yet another record."

The team at Bugatti Rimac celebrate after the Nevera shattered the top speed in reverse record.

At the very core of the Rimac Nevera is a 120 kwh battery pack but instead of range, it is all about the performance that is extracted from this mean machine. How much? The Nevera offers an astounding 1,914 hp and offers a back-breaking 2,340 Nm of torque. Top speed is at 412 kmph. A motor on each of the four wheels help these move independently by one dedicated electric motor which channels torque accordingly.