'I drove from my Yorkshire home to Croatia in a £1.8m electric hypercar - it was extraordinary'
As an adventurer, Chris Brown is used to high-energy journeys in unusual vehicles. But even for him, a 1,600-mile journey in an electric hypercar was something to be savoured.
The Harrogate man drove from his Yorkshire home to Croatia to test a high-performance £1.8m Rimac Nevera electric car which can manage 60mph in under two seconds.
Journeys like this are nothing new for tech entrpreneur Mr Brown. He is pursuing the Eight Poles Project – a bid to become the first person in history to visit all eight of the Earth’s Poles of Inaccessibility.
These are the co-ordinates on a continent that are the furthest from the ocean in all directions or, in case of oceans, the point furthest from land.
He has reached seven of the eight: North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica plus the two Oceanic Poles at Point Nemo in the South Pacific and the Northern Pole in the Arctic.
For his journey to Trogir near Split in Croatia, he built two sets of co-ordinates into his route, taking in detours to the national points of inaccessibility for Belgium and Luxembourg - the points that lie furthest from any sea or border.
Mr Brown, 63, a Nevera owner, said: "With everything else I’ve been doing I’ve had nowhere near as much time as I wanted to really drive the Nevera.
"So, when an invitation came to join the team in Croatia, I jumped at the chance to spend a few thousand kilometres behind the wheel.
"These four days have just reaffirmed what I already knew about the Nevera; it’s an extraordinary achievement.
"Spacious, quiet, comfortable and with hundreds of miles between charges – all the things you want for a long road trip – while simultaneously providing the kind of performance and driving thrill of a proper hypercar.
"Among the many adventures I’ve had, it’s one of the most memorable.”
The four-day route crossed seven countries. Throughout the trip, he relied on IONITY’s high-power charging network.
When Rimac Automobili designed the Nevera, it was never intended to be a single-purpose hypercar too compromised for everyday use.
Mate Rimac, founder and president of the Rimac Group, said: "The Nevera was primarily developed as a Hyper GT, rather than a track-focused car.”
Rimac Trailblazer Tour is an annual gathering of the Nevera owner community that last year brought together nine cars for a four-day journey through Croatia's diverse landscapes, culminating at the Roman amphitheatre in Pula.
Rimac Automobili is one part of the world’s ultimate hypercar company, Bugatti Rimac.
Founded in 2009 by Mate Rimac, the Rimac Automobili brand created the world’s first all-electric hypercar, the Concept_One, in 2011.
In 2021, Rimac unveiled its next-generation all-electric hypercar – the Nevera, which has since set over 27 world performance records.