Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac reveals what his dream car is and it's not a Bugatti or a Rimac

Mate Rimac, CEO of both Bugatti and Rimac, is unsurprisingly a huge car guy.

He owns a long list of vintage cars, and most of them are actually made by German companies.

And some of those cars were built by ‘rival’ brands.

But the latest addition to the collection comes with a twist.

Mate Rimac is a bona fide car guy

Now – dare we say ‘fortunately’ – most CEOs of car companies are engineers and, more importantly, genuinely interested in cars.

It sounds obvious, but it wasn’t always like that.

For a very long time, so many CEOs were generic executives with exceptional execution and management skills.

But when it came to car knowledge, it was adequate but not stellar, and when it came to passion, it was even worse than that.

Bugatti-Rimac CEO Mate Rimac does not fit into that category.

For two reasons.

First, because most CEOs try their absolute best to never be seen driving cars made by other manufacturers.

They all do it, by the way, for research reasons, but they just don’t want to be ‘caught’ doing it.

Rimac doesn’t care about the optics, evidently.

And then second, despite having access to hypercars from Bugatti and Rimac, so many of his cars are oddballs and cult icons.

Among others, he owns an old (fourth-gen) VW Golf R32 and a BMW E39 M5, which he uses almost daily.

But there’s a new car he’s been ‘dreaming’ about.

His new BMW is far from stock

Apparently, Mate Rimac has secretly been working (well, not him in person, but you get the gist) on a side project: a custom-built BMW.

The CEO had a tuning company create a custom BMW E30 with a V10 engine.

Before you ask, no, there’s no such thing as a factory-made V10-powered E30, so this was built specifically for him, presumably sourcing a V10 from other BMWs like the M5.

Finished in stainless steel gray with black wheels, the car also stands out because of the bright yellow roll cage.

But the best part about it is his smile.

As you can see from the video by Jim Amelinckx, owner of @s2000_parts_europe below, he is clearly extremely happy with the result.

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A post shared by Jim Amelinckx (@jimgummy)

Other automotive CEOs and executives who are genuine gearheads

Jim Farley (Ford) – Like Rimac, Farley owns a collection of vintage classics, and he has no problem being transparent and honest about competition

Akio Toyoda (former CEO, now Chairman, Toyota) – Toyoda is actually a racing driver and a test driver. He’s the reason Toyota created its performance brand, Gazoo Racing

Horacio Pagani (Pagani) – Former chief engineer at Lamborghini, he created Pagani because he was so passionate about cars he wanted a specific change that Lamborghini wouldn’t allow

Sasha Selipanov (Nilu27) – We’ve interviewed him and he’s incredibly passionate about cars. Also, like Pagani, he cut his teeth working as engineer for high-profile brands, including Koenigsegg