Mate Rimac, a well-known innovator and entrepreneur from Croatia, is the owner of a car collection that includes modern sports models, but also legendary specimens produced over the past four decades. Part of this collection, whose total value exceeds ten million euros, was presented in a report by the United Kingdom (UK) automotive series Top Gear.
The Top Gear team visited Rimac at his factory in Sveta Nedelja, where he showed them, among other things, the room where he currently keeps the collection – a space that still hasn’t received its final purpose.
In that room are mostly cars that Rimac personally uses, but he often lends them to friends for special occasions, such as weddings. Among the vehicles are both new and older ones – including the legendary BMW “kockica” (nickname for the classic boxy BMW E30), similar to the one with which he started his story about the electrification of cars. However, automotive enthusiasts can guess from the license plate “ZG EVO III” that this is not his former “kockica” with which he broke his first Guinness speed records in the electric vehicle category, but one of only 600 produced units of the BMW M3 E30.
The Carrera GT is significantly more valued than the Mercedes SLR
It is well known that Rimac loves BMW – he owns several of them. The first car he bought when he started forming the collection was a BMW Z4 M Coupe, which he had wanted already as a teenager.
One of the most impressive models in the collection is the Porsche Carrera GT, which has a personalized license plate “ZG Whooop.” Rimac explained that the plate symbolizes the characteristic sound that this model produces. From the same period and in the same class is the Mercedes SLR, which he says is not particularly pleasant to drive, but “looks great.”
He also touched on an interesting detail regarding the price of these two models, which, when new, was almost identical – about 400 thousand euros. Today, the situation is different – a well-preserved SLR can be found for about 300.000 euros, while for a Carrera GT of the same production year, one needs to set aside as much as one and a half million euros.
How much is the collection worth?
In Rimac’s “garage” there are also the latest cars equipped with technologies from Rimac Automobili, such as the Aston Martin Valkyrie and the Pininfarina Battista. Also, Rimac owns a Ferrari SF90, which was briefly shown in the video.
The precise value of the collection is difficult to determine, but it is clear that it exceeds 10 million euros. Just the Rimac Nevera, expectedly present in the collection, is worth over two million euros. The price of the Pininfarina Battista is similar, while the Aston Martin Valkyrie reaches an even higher figure.
Positive comments on a global level
While comments about Rimac on Croatian portals are often polarized, from extremely positive to very negative, the comments below the Top Gear video are almost unanimously positive. As co-owner and CEO of Bugatti-Rimac, Mate Rimac has won over the audience with his approachability and understanding of automotive technology, N1 writes.
