Koenigsegg Automotive AB is a Swedish high-performance car company based in Ängelholm, Sweden. It was founded by Christian Von Koenigsegg in 1994. Koenigsegg creates some of the fastest cars in the world, as a relatively new company with only 400 employees it has grown rapidly and solidified its place as a leader in the hyper-car market.
In a stark contrast to most people, Christian Von Koenigsegg followed through with his deeply embedded dreams and began turning it into reality at the young age of just 22. Ultimately, through intense determination, blood, sweat and tears, Christion developed the Koenigsegg CC8S. Having explored the limits of technology and innovations to create the Koenigsegg CC8S, Christian gained further determination to continue improving his designs and pushing further the limits of automobiles. This all would go towards his mission to create the perfect sports car.
Koenigsegg first came out with the CC8S in 2000 and was revealed at the Paris Auto Show , With its dihedral synchro-helix actuation doors and a central patented free-flowing exhaust system it attracted a lot of attention and demand was set high from the get-go. One of the innovative newIt features was its unique targa style roof which could be stored in the front storage unit. The car had a 655 BHP Supercharged 4.7 litre V8 from Ford. With a top speed of 390 kph or 240 mph which is astonishing considering the car is now 22 years old, narrowly slower than the legendary Mclaren F1. Despite heavy demand only six were ever made.
The successor to the CC8S was the CCR, now featuring an in-house engine the true marvel of engineering that this company is reputable for was starting to be embedded, with 806 HP it was the fastest production car in the world at its release. At Italy’s Nardò Ring where a team of five Koenigsegg engineers ran a standard CCR, driven by Loris Bicocchi to a top speed of 387.87 km/h (241.01 mph). This in house-engineering was taken to the extreme, for instance Koenigsegg uses almost no external suppliers for parts with even the windscreen wipers and switches in the interior being made in house.
When Koenigsegg released the Agera RS which was that fastest member of the Agera family, with different variants such as the original Agera and the Agera R, Agera S and the one-to-one with the best power to weight ratio of any car with a record one horsepower per kilogram. The RS completely shattered Bugattis top speed record with an astonishing 277.8 MPH or 427 KPH. The style in which this information was released to the public was so casual compared to other manufactures, for instance when Bugatti was looking to break the 0-400-0 kph world record they performed the test on their top secret VW test track in Germany with former F1 driver Pablo Montoya behind the wheel with a video being uploaded of the attempt. The Agera RS then went on to shatter the record with a mockingly similar video with an element of humour. The new Koenigsegg Regera went on to break this record with it’s revolutionary Koenigsegg Direct-Drive System (KDD), The Regera doesn’t have a traditional multi-gear transmission but instead features a single-speed fixed-gear transmission, often called a direct-drive, with a 2.73:1 reduction ratio, meaning the crankshaft mounted on the ICE will rotate 2.73 times for every 1 time that the output shaft of the direct-drive mechanism will rotate. After breaking the 0-400-0 record, In the video Christian asked the test driver, “what about top speed” to which the driver replied with ‘hold my beer” with a clear implicit reference to Bugattis unofficial Chiron Super Sport top speed run.
The successor to the Agera, the Jesko which is named after Christians father is currently being produced and has not been officially sold yet. The two variants are the Jesko and Jesko Absolute. The Absolute being more slippery with no rear wing and has been rumoured of being capable to reach over 330 MPH or 530 KPH the car has many new innovations such as its lightning fast transmission, The transmission has a shift time ranging from 20 to 30 milliseconds. It also has an overdrive mode called “Ultimate Power on Demand” that is designed to skip directly to the optimal gear depending on user input, rather than down or upshifting sequentially to that gear.
The traditions of Koenigsegg cars always pass on certain elements to future cars, for example the dihedral synchro-helix actuation doors and the ghost logo. The Ghost logo was the symbol of “The Ghosts”, one of Sweden’s oldest air squadrons who were often not seen but heard through the skies. Koenigsegg adopted the logo and is featured on every Koenigsegg built at the former Swedish airbase.
Christian Von Koenigsegg has always implemented a personal touch to his cars, and whatever he dreams he creates, A vision of his ideal sports car which was also a practical car and went so far as to create a family version, called the Gemera which in Swedish means “Give more”. This car with four seats has 1700HP with 600 HP coming from just three cylinders and the rest coming from three electric motors. To give some perspective, that is, 200 HP per cylinder. The Bugatti Chiron with its W16 engine has 93 HP per cylinder. The Gemera is capable of reaching 0-60 MPH or 0-100 KPH in just 1.9 seconds with a top speed of 249 MPH or 400 KPH. A classic example of how Christian implements personal touches and strong family focus is the luggage which comes with the Gemera when one is purchased with each piece of luggage having the name of one of his children.