WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Bugatti's next hypercar will be built under the ownership of EV experts Rimac. We drive the current ultimates from both marques on the stunning roads of southern Croatia and imagine what the future might hold

- STEVE SUTCLIFFE

WATCHING THE TAIL END OF A BUGATTI CHIRON Super Sport squirm under full acceleration as all four of its vast tyres scrabble for grip momentarily is not, let's face it, a sight many folks will ever get to witness up close and personal, in real life. But even if you are fortunate enough to see a Chiron SS in full flight as it thunders its way from zero to 62mph in 2.4sec and to 186mph (300kph) in just 12.1sec, it will inevitably be a blink-and-you'll-miss-it experience, a seismic event that's already unfolded long before you've had time to focus in on the details.

Unless, that is, you happen to be sitting behind the Bugatti at the controls of a Rimac Nevera, in which case you'll have all the time in the world to drink in what happens when the Chiron's driver tries, and for half a second fails, to dump all the raw energy produced by its 8-litre quad-turbo W16 engine not-so-neatly onto the tarmac. For the record the Super Sport generates 1600 PS or 1578bhp - officially. But unofficially it's a fair bit more than that; the biggest number we'll see on its power output dial during two days of driving it will be 1611 PS, although apparently the figure 1616 quite often pops up in the display if you keep your toe in for long enough and hit a high enough speed.

Either way, it's more than the car's ESC system can cope with on roads such as those we're on today, hence the reason the Chiron goes sideways in a spectacular WRC-style launch-cum-drift when its driver - in this case one Andy Wallace - gives it the beans from a standstill. It's one heck of a thing to observe from no more than 10 yards away, even though the dust cloud kicked up by the Bugatti's spinning rear Michelins does spoil the view after a couple of seconds.