Nico Rosberg lives a relatively charmed life, at least compared to most of the world’s population. After winning the 2016 Formula One Driver’s Championship, Rosberg retired like a boss, ensuring that he left the sport sitting on the mountaintop.
Since then, the German driver has dabbled in driver management, television hosting, and eco-entrepreneurship. But just because Rosberg has been gone from motor racing for four years, that doesn’t mean his thirst for speed and performance has dissipated. On the contrary, Rosberg remains a driver/racer at heart, and his latest car purchase proves as much. In the event that you’re desperate to own a Rimac C-Two but you can’t afford one, now’s a good chance to live vicariously through Nico Rosberg, who proudly showed off his latest four-wheeled acquisition, much to our collective jealousy.
Who is Nico Rosberg?
If you’re not a fan of Formula One, you probably haven’t heard of Nico Rosberg. That’s nothing to be ashamed off since Formula One isn’t that big of a sport in the U.S. So instead of Googling his name yourselves, we’ll spare you the trouble.
Nico Rosberg is a German race car driver who started in Formula One back in 2006 after successful stints in Formula 3 and the GP2 series. Rosberg spent 10 years as a Formula One driver, culminating in his 2016 F1 Driver’s Championship title while driving for Mercedes F1. Barely a week after his championship win, Rosberg retired from the sport, citing his desire to spend more time with his family and not wanting his drinking skills to atrophy if he spent more years in the sport.
Since his retirement, Rosberg has ventured into driver management and television hosting, including serving as a sports TV analyst during F1 races. He’s also become heavily involved in supporting environmentalism. He’s dabbled into eco-entrepreneurship and his conviction in becoming a champion for the environment has also affected his tastes for supercars.
What’s so special about the Rimac C_Two?
For starters, the Rimac C_Two is a semi-autonomous, all-electric supercar that was developed and built by the same company that gave us the absolutely bonkers, 1,224-horsepower Concept One supercar.
The Concept One’s ability to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds and hit a top speed of 221 mph was its biggest performance calling card. But when you compare what the Concept One could do to what its successor, the C_Two, can do, let’s just say that it wouldn’t be a fair race.
Here’s what you need to know about the C_Two: it’s powered by four liquid-cooled permanent magnet synchronous electric motors that are placed at each wheel. A 120-kWh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide battery is also part of the powertrain equation.
Altogether, the C_Two’s motors are capable of unleashing as much as 1,914 horsepower and 1,696 pound-feet of torque.
Imagine the kind of g-forces you stand to absorb when you accelerate off the line knowing the supercar’s electric motors can produce that much torque in so little time. Rosberg’s a professional race car driver — or at least he was — so he understands that kind of sensation perfectly.
At the peak of its powers, the C_Two is capable of hitting 60 mph from a standstill position in just 1.85 seconds, making it the fastest-accelerating, road-legal production car in the world. It can also accelerate from 0 to 186 mph in just 11.8 seconds and cover a quarter-mile distance in just 9.1 seconds on its way to a top speed of 258 mph.
The C_Two has a maximum range of 400 miles and if that’s not enough, this supercar is also capable of Level 4 autonomous driving with full advanced driver-assistance systems in tow.
| Battery Pack Capacity | 120 kWh |
|---|---|
| Range Per Charge | 400 miles |
| Electric Motors | four |
| Combined Horsepower | 1,914 |
| Torque | 1,696 pound-feet |
| 0-60 mph | 1.85 seconds |
| 0 to 186 mph | 11.8 seconds |
| Quarter-mile | 9.1 seconds |
| Top Speed | 258 mph |
There’s a reason that it costs $2 million and of the 150 units that Rimac plans to build, all found owners in less than three weeks after it was launched in 2018. One of those owners turned out to be Nico Rosberg.