5 ms·

Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac: The future of supercars is combustion engines

18 points by tosh 2mo ago

slices 2mo ago
It's obvious, now that we have fast, flashy, quiet cars, that part of the appeal of supercars has always been the sound of the engine.
- SpaceNugget 2mo ago
  I think that's not obvious at all, and quite a personal preference. There's lots of assholes in the area with extremely loud cars who seem to think that way. I have never thought the sound of a engine is cool, pleasant, exciting, impressive, or anything remotely like that. I do like adrenaline and driving fast in almost every form of vehicle, but if I could have a silent maglev sportbike that drove just like a combustion based bike I would choose it in a heartbeat.
  - toomuchtodo 2mo ago
    Schermer JA. A desire for a loud car with a modified muffler is predicted by being a man and higher scores on psychopathy and sadism. Curr Issues Personal Psychol. 2023 Apr 14;11(4):339-343. doi: https://doi.org/10.5114/CIPP/162006 https://doi.org/10.5114/CIPP/162006 PMID: 38075464; PMCID: PMC10699294. > Researchers noted that modifying a vehicle to make an illegal, disruptive noise at a distance demonstrates the callous disregard for other people's feelings that defines psychopathy. > Because the sudden noise startles and scares pedestrians or animals, the drivers frequently score high on everyday sadism, meaning they derive personal joy from minorly distressing or startling others. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/human-individual-differences/202305/who-wants-a-loud-car https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/human-individual-dif... > Contrary to my hypothesis, narcissism was not a significant predictor when the other personality dimensions were included. This finding suggests that people may not, in fact, be making their vehicles louder to draw attention to themselves or to say, “Look at me!” > The results are concerning in that they suggest that individuals who make their vehicles loud may be doing so to deliberately hurt others by disturbing them and that these individuals may be motivated by the negative state that they cause others. Although the study is a pilot study and requires replication, the results are perhaps especially concerning because some media outlets are reporting that the frequency of vehicles with loud exhaust systems has been increasing.
  - wil421 2mo ago
    My car people are the absolute opposite of you. Almost all of us want noise but it doesn’t have to be obnoxious. Most high end car with high end engines have switches that will control the exhaust valve.
  - bitcharmer 2mo ago
    [dead]
feverzsj 2mo ago
Guess only rich people can afford carbon taxes in the future.
- toomuchtodo 2mo ago
  There are only ~420 refineries globally still operating. ~21% of global oil refining capacity (101 out of 420 assessed sites) is at risk of closure by 2035 due to rising carbon costs, environmental policies, and a long-term drop in gasoline demand. [My note: this is less than 10 years away] I used to think "We're never going to run out of oil, meaning we'll never move off of it." and I was mistaken. After more research, I've come to the conclusion that while we might never run out of oil, refinery capacity will only decline into the future, creating supply chain death spirals over time in various parts of the system. If you want to end the use of fossil fuels, refineries are the weakest link in the chain. No new ones will be built due to the risk of stranded capital and the time to build them considering the forward global oil demand trajectory. [My note: China destroys 1M barrels of daily global oil demand for every 24 months they produce EVs, at current run rates, and has enough EV manufacturing capacity for global demand] TLDR If rich people are going to burn petroleum instead of biodiesel (used vegetable oil for diesel like engine use cases) or alcohol (top fuel dragsters), good luck refining it yourself or importing it. Similar to how if the end of the world arrives, and you need pharmaceuticals to survive, you'll only last as long as the supply chain for said pharmaceuticals survives if you cannot make it yourself. Global refinery closure outlook to 2035 - https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/global-refinery-closure-outlook-2035/ https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/global-refinery-closure... - March 31st, 2025 (think in systems)
comrade1234 2mo ago
It's like Swiss watches. Sure, a digital watch would be better but if you're really into mechanics and engineering a fancy hand-made swiss watch is your thing.
- yostrovs 2mo ago
  Imagine if the watch made a loud gurgling sound, that everyone can hear, every time you checked it.
  - tonyedgecombe 2mo ago
    Some arseholes would like that. Look at me, look at me.
Sweepi 2mo ago
The future of supercars is to outlaw them to make any engine noise on the road. There is no reason to have engine noise other then that not having engine noise is not possible at a given price point. This is obviously not the case with "supercars". If you want to buy a toy that makes noise, get a non street-legal car for the race track. There is no reason why 99.9..% of the population should be required to tolerate more (street-)noise than necessary.
- cindyllm 2mo ago
  [dead]
- piva00 2mo ago
  Engine noise from traffic is so normalised that it can be hard to picture how it can not exist. I only got the feeling of how much calmer it felt without engines revving all around after visiting Guilin, China a couple of years ago. Most cars, trucks, scooters were electric and the only noise I'd hear were tyres rolling, the odd ICE vehicle sounded like a banshee among the rest.
  - redeeman 2mo ago
    most traffic noise is not the engine, its tires and other such noises. modern cars, including combustion ones, make very very little sound edit: for cars only, motorcycles etc make more
    - bryanlarsen 2mo ago
      At highway speed, yes. But it's mostly cities where the complaints are. And at sane city speeds engine noise predominates. And at highway speed the exceptions like Harley's and glass-packs and high rpm super cars are the problem. It's not the steady whoosh of tire noise that wakes you up in the middle of the night.
    - noir_lord 2mo ago
      > motorcycles etc make more Often by design (either the manufacturer or the rider swapping to a louder exhaust) there isn't any reason they can't be quieter and many of them are off the forecourt. The common argument you run into why people make them loud is its for "safety" but that's always felt like a thin excuse to justify "hey, look at me!" loud exhausts. Yes, I've owned motorcycles, I commuted using one to work for years, no it been "quiet" didn't make it any less safe. I do occasionally think about getting another one but the animus simply isn't there any more, I think if I needed transport these days I'd just get a car, for commuting a motorcycle was brilliant (it's legal in the UK to lane split which in heavy rush hour traffic is a real time saver) and they are cheaper to run but in every other way it was strictly worse than a car.
Peanuts99 2mo ago
The difference being Swiss watches are elegantly engineered pieces of art whereas internal combustion engines of any kind are essentially just rube goldberg machines that we have collectively normalised as a society.
- tpaschalis 2mo ago
  I think you’re underselling the amount of sophistication and refinement that goes into a modern ICE, which is the backbone of a big part of the global economy.
  - bigtex88 2mo ago
    That doesn't change the fact that they are worse at what they do than an equivalent electric motor. There's zero reason we need ICE. We have better technology, we just don't have the will (at least in America) to fully adopt it.
- vivzkestrel 2mo ago
  you are underestimating what it takes to get a car to run at 450 kmph by a magnitude of 10x
- linksnapzz 2mo ago
  Reddit is --> thataway
rasz 2mo ago
>loud internal combustion engines and emotional appeal. VW ran the numbers and realized they cant compete with Chinese $100K 2000HP EVs accelerating in 2.5 second and beating any supercar.
ortusdux 2mo ago
YASA motors makes a 30lb electric motor the size of a Roomba that outputs 1000 peak horsepower. The future of many supercars will be hybrids with the electric train doing the brunt of the work. https://www.arenaev.com/yasa_makes_a_1000hp_electric_motor_that_weighs_less_than_30_pounds-news-5248.php https://www.arenaev.com/yasa_makes_a_1000hp_electric_motor_t...
cyanydeez 2mo ago
well of course it is: it's for rich assholes who need to separate themselves and say "look, I'm an asshole with so much money and so little care, I can purchase a gas powered vehicle and ignore all the rammifications". Dude is on point to his audience, gotta applause that.
- stahtops 2mo ago
  So where’s your line? Do we all need to drive a Prius?
  - cyanydeez 2mo ago
    yes, comrade. we must stick head in trough, and eat all grey goo generated by the AI master. I assume that's your imaginary answer. I'll let you see your way to something more rational.
deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
snowwrestler 2mo ago
What he actually believes about the future of cars is not the really the point of this statement. The point is to position himself now, today, in the minds of his target audience. EVs are not cool today and nostalgia-driven grievance against them is. So: the future is the past! Specifically all the stuff you thought was cool when you were 17. But now, you have the money to pay for it.
- Stevvo 2mo ago
  Feel like Ferrari Luce was designed specifically to turn people away from the idea of electric super cars.
m463 2mo ago
Person: "I have a tesla roadster that can fly." Bugatti CEO: "that's not a supercar."
- general1465 2mo ago
  How many flying Tesla roadsters are on the road?
  - JustResign 2mo ago
    None. They're flying! :D
Stevvo 2mo ago
The manufacturers certainly want the future of supercars to be combustion engines. Combustion engines are their moat; without them, there is little unique about their vehicles. But BMW felt the same about regular gasoline cars & hybrids. That didn't turn out too well for them.
dzhiurgis 2mo ago
20 years ago bugatti released 1000hp vehicle. Now it’s not even impressive anymore. Chinese moved to megawatt scale. Of course in some markets ICE engines will remain mainstream, and in some they are seen as absolute cringe.
b0rtb0rt 2mo ago
why is everyone on hacker news always so butthurt about cars lol

18 points by tosh 2mo ago

It's obvious, now that we have fast, flashy, quiet cars, that part of the appeal of supercars has always been the sound of the engine.

SpaceNugget 2mo ago
I think that's not obvious at all, and quite a personal preference. There's lots of assholes in the area with extremely loud cars who seem to think that way. I have never thought the sound of a engine is cool, pleasant, exciting, impressive, or anything remotely like that. I do like adrenaline and driving fast in almost every form of vehicle, but if I could have a silent maglev sportbike that drove just like a combustion based bike I would choose it in a heartbeat.
- toomuchtodo 2mo ago
  Schermer JA. A desire for a loud car with a modified muffler is predicted by being a man and higher scores on psychopathy and sadism. Curr Issues Personal Psychol. 2023 Apr 14;11(4):339-343. doi: https://doi.org/10.5114/CIPP/162006 https://doi.org/10.5114/CIPP/162006 PMID: 38075464; PMCID: PMC10699294. > Researchers noted that modifying a vehicle to make an illegal, disruptive noise at a distance demonstrates the callous disregard for other people's feelings that defines psychopathy. > Because the sudden noise startles and scares pedestrians or animals, the drivers frequently score high on everyday sadism, meaning they derive personal joy from minorly distressing or startling others. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/human-individual-differences/202305/who-wants-a-loud-car https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/human-individual-dif... > Contrary to my hypothesis, narcissism was not a significant predictor when the other personality dimensions were included. This finding suggests that people may not, in fact, be making their vehicles louder to draw attention to themselves or to say, “Look at me!” > The results are concerning in that they suggest that individuals who make their vehicles loud may be doing so to deliberately hurt others by disturbing them and that these individuals may be motivated by the negative state that they cause others. Although the study is a pilot study and requires replication, the results are perhaps especially concerning because some media outlets are reporting that the frequency of vehicles with loud exhaust systems has been increasing.
- wil421 2mo ago
  My car people are the absolute opposite of you. Almost all of us want noise but it doesn’t have to be obnoxious. Most high end car with high end engines have switches that will control the exhaust valve.
- bitcharmer 2mo ago
  [dead]

feverzsj 2mo ago

Guess only rich people can afford carbon taxes in the future.

toomuchtodo 2mo ago
There are only ~420 refineries globally still operating. ~21% of global oil refining capacity (101 out of 420 assessed sites) is at risk of closure by 2035 due to rising carbon costs, environmental policies, and a long-term drop in gasoline demand. [My note: this is less than 10 years away] I used to think "We're never going to run out of oil, meaning we'll never move off of it." and I was mistaken. After more research, I've come to the conclusion that while we might never run out of oil, refinery capacity will only decline into the future, creating supply chain death spirals over time in various parts of the system. If you want to end the use of fossil fuels, refineries are the weakest link in the chain. No new ones will be built due to the risk of stranded capital and the time to build them considering the forward global oil demand trajectory. [My note: China destroys 1M barrels of daily global oil demand for every 24 months they produce EVs, at current run rates, and has enough EV manufacturing capacity for global demand] TLDR If rich people are going to burn petroleum instead of biodiesel (used vegetable oil for diesel like engine use cases) or alcohol (top fuel dragsters), good luck refining it yourself or importing it. Similar to how if the end of the world arrives, and you need pharmaceuticals to survive, you'll only last as long as the supply chain for said pharmaceuticals survives if you cannot make it yourself. Global refinery closure outlook to 2035 - https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/global-refinery-closure-outlook-2035/ https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/global-refinery-closure... - March 31st, 2025 (think in systems)

comrade1234 2mo ago

It's like Swiss watches. Sure, a digital watch would be better but if you're really into mechanics and engineering a fancy hand-made swiss watch is your thing.

yostrovs 2mo ago
Imagine if the watch made a loud gurgling sound, that everyone can hear, every time you checked it.
- tonyedgecombe 2mo ago
  Some arseholes would like that. Look at me, look at me.

Sweepi 2mo ago

The future of supercars is to outlaw them to make any engine noise on the road. There is no reason to have engine noise other then that not having engine noise is not possible at a given price point. This is obviously not the case with "supercars". If you want to buy a toy that makes noise, get a non street-legal car for the race track. There is no reason why 99.9..% of the population should be required to tolerate more (street-)noise than necessary.

cindyllm 2mo ago
[dead]
piva00 2mo ago
Engine noise from traffic is so normalised that it can be hard to picture how it can not exist. I only got the feeling of how much calmer it felt without engines revving all around after visiting Guilin, China a couple of years ago. Most cars, trucks, scooters were electric and the only noise I'd hear were tyres rolling, the odd ICE vehicle sounded like a banshee among the rest.
- redeeman 2mo ago
  most traffic noise is not the engine, its tires and other such noises. modern cars, including combustion ones, make very very little sound edit: for cars only, motorcycles etc make more
  - bryanlarsen 2mo ago
    At highway speed, yes. But it's mostly cities where the complaints are. And at sane city speeds engine noise predominates. And at highway speed the exceptions like Harley's and glass-packs and high rpm super cars are the problem. It's not the steady whoosh of tire noise that wakes you up in the middle of the night.
  - noir_lord 2mo ago
    > motorcycles etc make more Often by design (either the manufacturer or the rider swapping to a louder exhaust) there isn't any reason they can't be quieter and many of them are off the forecourt. The common argument you run into why people make them loud is its for "safety" but that's always felt like a thin excuse to justify "hey, look at me!" loud exhausts. Yes, I've owned motorcycles, I commuted using one to work for years, no it been "quiet" didn't make it any less safe. I do occasionally think about getting another one but the animus simply isn't there any more, I think if I needed transport these days I'd just get a car, for commuting a motorcycle was brilliant (it's legal in the UK to lane split which in heavy rush hour traffic is a real time saver) and they are cheaper to run but in every other way it was strictly worse than a car.

Peanuts99 2mo ago

The difference being Swiss watches are elegantly engineered pieces of art whereas internal combustion engines of any kind are essentially just rube goldberg machines that we have collectively normalised as a society.

tpaschalis 2mo ago
I think you’re underselling the amount of sophistication and refinement that goes into a modern ICE, which is the backbone of a big part of the global economy.
- bigtex88 2mo ago
  That doesn't change the fact that they are worse at what they do than an equivalent electric motor. There's zero reason we need ICE. We have better technology, we just don't have the will (at least in America) to fully adopt it.
vivzkestrel 2mo ago
you are underestimating what it takes to get a car to run at 450 kmph by a magnitude of 10x
linksnapzz 2mo ago
Reddit is --> thataway

rasz 2mo ago

>loud internal combustion engines and emotional appeal. VW ran the numbers and realized they cant compete with Chinese $100K 2000HP EVs accelerating in 2.5 second and beating any supercar.

ortusdux 2mo ago

YASA motors makes a 30lb electric motor the size of a Roomba that outputs 1000 peak horsepower. The future of many supercars will be hybrids with the electric train doing the brunt of the work. https://www.arenaev.com/yasa_makes_a_1000hp_electric_motor_that_weighs_less_than_30_pounds-news-5248.php https://www.arenaev.com/yasa_makes_a_1000hp_electric_motor_t...

cyanydeez 2mo ago

well of course it is: it's for rich assholes who need to separate themselves and say "look, I'm an asshole with so much money and so little care, I can purchase a gas powered vehicle and ignore all the rammifications". Dude is on point to his audience, gotta applause that.

stahtops 2mo ago
So where’s your line? Do we all need to drive a Prius?
- cyanydeez 2mo ago
  yes, comrade. we must stick head in trough, and eat all grey goo generated by the AI master. I assume that's your imaginary answer. I'll let you see your way to something more rational.

deleted 2mo ago

[deleted]

snowwrestler 2mo ago

What he actually believes about the future of cars is not the really the point of this statement. The point is to position himself now, today, in the minds of his target audience. EVs are not cool today and nostalgia-driven grievance against them is. So: the future is the past! Specifically all the stuff you thought was cool when you were 17. But now, you have the money to pay for it.

Stevvo 2mo ago
Feel like Ferrari Luce was designed specifically to turn people away from the idea of electric super cars.

m463 2mo ago

Person: "I have a tesla roadster that can fly." Bugatti CEO: "that's not a supercar."

general1465 2mo ago
How many flying Tesla roadsters are on the road?
- JustResign 2mo ago
  None. They're flying! :D

Stevvo 2mo ago

The manufacturers certainly want the future of supercars to be combustion engines. Combustion engines are their moat; without them, there is little unique about their vehicles. But BMW felt the same about regular gasoline cars & hybrids. That didn't turn out too well for them.

dzhiurgis 2mo ago

20 years ago bugatti released 1000hp vehicle. Now it’s not even impressive anymore. Chinese moved to megawatt scale. Of course in some markets ICE engines will remain mainstream, and in some they are seen as absolute cringe.

b0rtb0rt 2mo ago

why is everyone on hacker news always so butthurt about cars lol