Behind the scenes with Mirko Cro Cop
We exit the airport, which is surprisingly small for a capital city, and onto the road outside. I cast around…
We exit the airport, which is surprisingly small for a capital city, and onto the road outside. I cast around looking for CroCop’s car, for some reason expecting a 4×4. Instead he leads the way to an absolutely stunning all-black S-Class Mercedes. From the outside it looks like Armani and the team behind the Stealth Bomber sat down to design a car. The inside is nicer than any house I have ever lived in.
At once understated yet imposing, it has the dignity of an ambassador’s car and yet something about it has that edge of muscle and attitude that you would expect a fighter’s car to have. I’m stronger and faster than you, the car says to the vehicles around it, and I’m also better looking. Then it gives them the bird and roars off in a cloud of dust.
The doors have been left unlocked – would you try and steal CroCop’s car? – and we hop in and roar off. As we canter round a particularly steep bend, something nudges me in the side. I jump in my seat and Mirko laughs. What’s this? I ask, and he explains that the car has smart seats that inflate according to which direction the car is leaning in, so that you do not slide in your seat or even have your posture adjusted a fraction.
The stereo display is like a miniature widescreen television, if that makes sense, and loaded with buttons and technical readout information about the car. I have a feeling there’s probably a button for fresh coffee and scrambled eggs somewhere on it as well.
Currently, ABBA are occupying the speakers. CroCop turns it up, laughs and sings along. Its like the absolute opposite of anything you would ever picture CroCop doing. If ever you imagined what his day to day life is like, I bet it didn’t include a scene of him roaring down the highway singing along to ABBA.
At this point, I look out the window. Zagreb skips by in the darkness and I think to myself, ‘this is surreal. You’re driving through Eastern Europe with CroCop singing along to ABBA.’