Zac Mihajlovic is jet-lagged, but he’s about as happy as he’s ever been. Mihajlovic has just arrived back in Australia after the reveal of his own home-built supercar, the F1-inspired Zacaria SC.
Built in Zac’s NSW property with business partner Scotty Cox (the SC in ‘Zacaria SC’), a custom motorcycle builder by trade.
The Zacaria isn’t just a Formula 1 car replica though, it’s built to be a road-registerable supercar that only one person (at a time, at least) will ever have the pleasure of owning. Zac’s only building one.
MOTOR actually discovered and wrote about the Zacaria back in mid-2018, as Zac had been on the media radar thanks to his road-legal Batmobile.
Since the initial MOTOR story on the car’s build progress, Zac tells us so much international attention has been drawn to the car that he was invited to unveil it at Top Marques Monaco.
“Thanks in part to your article, which put us out there and generated some interest, we got the invite to go to Top Marques by Prince Albert, so it was a four day show with a fifth private day for the super-wealthy,” Mihajlovic tells us.
“People like the Qatari royal family showed up, or Mika Hakkinen and his family… that’s the kind of demographic they chase on that final day.”
In fact, there was so much attention on the car it ended up sitting in the main viewing area at the show, and was even the subject of some purchase offers.
“On day one, once they saw the car, they said it was too good to be off to the side, so they moved us to the ‘number one’ stand and we were first to meet the prince.
“There was some validation in getting an offer on the car, that was really cool. The conditions of the offer weren’t what we value so we turned it down, but at least we know there’s interest out there.
“Worst-case scenario, since I funded it all myself and don’t owe anyone, I can just keep it if I don’t get what I want for it.”
It turns out there didn’t need to be too much deviation from the original plan for the car, as Zac spoke to MOTOR prior to the car’s arrival back in Australia.
He says it’ll still top 522kW using the 6.3-litre Ferrari F12 engine which was being dropped into the body about a year ago, with the Albins 6-speed gearbox still to feature – albeit with paddles instead of a sequential-style shifter.
It’s also wearing the same DUB wheels, wrapped now in Michelin Pilot Cup 2s, helping keep the 1.1-1.15-tonne beast stuck to the road.
Zac expects the weight to remain below 1200kg, though without having finalised the engineering for road use it could be closer to 1100kg.
The next major step, Zac says, is to test drive and get the car approved for road use. Oh, and some performance examination and dyno testing.
“We haven’t done any of the performance testing yet, but the car its engine is out of, [a Ferrari F12], runs a 3.1 to 100km/h. It’s also a few hundred kilos heavier than what we’re running, and we’ve got wider tyres and a better gearbox… so it should be sub-3.
“The impressive thing’s probably going to be its 100-200km/h time.”
Once it’s being tested and tweaked, Zac says there probably won’t be any need for a ‘professional’ test driver, unless someone buys the car and requests someone to have the car tuned to their liking.
“I’ve got enough experience in what I do and what feels right,” Zac says.
“We don’t build a volume that requires quality control over 10,000 cars. Its going to be up to the person that buys it to say ‘I’d like it to do this or that better’ or ‘I would like this person to test drive it for me.’
“In terms of having a test driver, I’m not going to go down that path. I’ll set it up to what feels right for the road. I’ve driven a lot of performance cars, so I know what feels right and what’s wrong.
“If it was a track car it’s a different story. Then it’s just about numbers. I think, instead, I’m going to set it up relatively soft for the road. If you’re 0.5 seconds slower down a mountain road because it’s softer and a little more comfortable, it doesn’t really matter does it?
“The best driver’s cars aren’t necessarily the fastest… even though this one will still blitz most things out there.”
Stay tuned as we follow the final stages of the Zacaria SC’s development.
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