Koenigsegg’s supercar can reach 100km/h in 2.9 seconds and costs well over €1 million. But its real purpose is to beat the Bugatti Veyron at its own game
WE PASS yet another policeman hiding in the bushes as the cab driver cheerfully tells us a 10km/h indiscretion here will cost the thick end of €500 and if we even tickle the throttle on what we are set to drive we will spend several months in jail and probably make the news. Scandinavia is not the best place to drive one of the fastest cars in the world.
But here we are to drive the Koenigsegg Agera R, the Swedish supercar. This is a machine that has emerged as perhaps the only real rival to the Bugatti Veyron and Pagani Huayra. It is, then, a car that belongs at the very top table in the supercar world. It is also made for breaking 320km/h, it costs more than €1.5 million, and today it’s raining. No pressure then . . .
As I stand in the shipyard from where we are to collect the car, I hear the five-litre twin turbo explode into life and settle into an aggressive idle inside the adjacent building. Then it rolls into view, and I feel sweat on my palms.
Visually it’s a big, bluff boxer of a car, with a smooth, curvaceous front end, powerful haunches and, when it’s in place, a low-slung double bubble roof that gives the car a real stealth fighter look.
Christian von Koenigsegg envisioned a dolphin when he sketched the first car that has slowly evolved into the Agera R over the past decade, but there’s more than a touch of nose-heavy bullshark about it from the side.
The skibox on the roof is borderline ridiculous and is simply a marketing tie-up to show the car will work in the snow after Koenigsegg developed a winter tyre with Michelin. But it looks stupid.
It’s an anomaly, for this car is full of neat touches, from the rear LED lights to the dihedral synchro helix door that twirls effortlessly up and out in one fluid motion and has probably made more than one sale on its own.
Inside, too, it’s another world. The centre console looks like a modern interpretation of an old-school telephone dial that comes to life along with the LCD displays in the centre console and the instrument panel, which has been totally replaced with a digital display, thanks to inlaid carbon nano tubes that light up on command.
It’s luxurious, too; with little touches that are more in keeping with a big flagship Mercedes or Audi rather than a road-going missile.
As I cruise in the Agera to the test track, I’m amazed by its tactile beauty. It’s gentle, it feels perfect and it sounds better than a Veyron by a long way.
The Bugatti is quiet, restrained, refined; the Agera strains at the leash from the moment you turn the key. It’s not uncontrolled, but that bellowing V8 and turbo whoosh make even legal speeds feel like an occasion.
But then it’s time for the real test of pure acceleration. It takes a moment to summon the courage to plant 1,150bhp and 1,200Nm of pure muscle, and when I finally do it, the Agera – which is the Swedish word for the verb “to act” – just goes mad.
All that power ploughs through the rear wheels and, in the dry, will send the Koenigsegg scorching to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds. In 7.5 seconds, 200km/h is conquered, and the Agera will go from 0-200-0km/h in just 12.7 seconds, which will leave mortals with internal bleeding, and will breach 420km/h.
But it’s not just about the numbers: it’s the sheer violence of the turbo-powered delivery that marks this car apart.
It’s an absolutely docile creature until the revs hit 3,500rpm and then it bolts forward with a jolt. Suddenly I’m at the next bend and the 7,250rpm redline with a kilometre of strange road behind me. I don’t even have time to compute the scrabbling rear wheels that seem to fix everything themselves. I know there’s wheelspin, worry about a massive accident, then find traction and the car explodes down the road again without the slightest correction on my part.
Then on lift-off, as I prepare to hit the ceramic brakes and flick down two gears on the seven-speed dual clutch paddle-shift from Cima, the whole car shimmies as the wastegates open and send a convulsion through the drivetrain. It’s a thoroughly unnerving experience for the first few runs.
But this is all part of the character of the car – the pent up energy shows itself at the surface, it involves the driver and yet somehow doesn’t need any help fixing the problems.
It even feels heavy; I’m using shoulder muscles to force the car into bends, rather than fingertips, but that’s a legacy of the epic grip rather than anything intrinsically wrong.
It can produce lateral cornering forces of 1.6g, while Bugatti’s Veyron Super Sport will give 1.45g. That means, theoretically, that the Agera will destroy almost anything on track if the driver is good enough. But without four-wheel drive to help if things go wrong, the Agera R takes serious skill to keep on the road – although it does come with its own track-focused tricks.
Koenigsegg deserves more credit than he’s received for innovation on this car. The drivetrain is the lightest and most compact in this class while a flat underbody with venturi tunnels helps suck it to the ground. The whole car weighs just 1,435kg including fluids.
Then there’s the rear suspension, which includes three dampers to prevent squat as well as control the standard impacts on the wheel.
The engine is worked into the build as a semi-stressed member to prevent its weight working against the car in corners, and even the wheels are designed to create a vortex of air and pull heat from the brake disc.
This is a holistic approach that has helped to create one of the finest cars in the world, and a genuine alternative to a Bugatti or Pagani. One thing is for sure: that new Pagani had better be very, very good.
FACTFILE
Vehicle layoutmid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, two-door supercar
Engine5.0-litre, 1,150bhp, 885lbs-ft twin turbo, dual over head cam (DOHC) 32-valve V-8
TransmissionSeven-speed semi-automatic dual clutch
Curb weight1,434.7kg
Wheelbase266.2cm
Dimensions429.3 x 199.6 x 112cm
0-100km/h2.9 secs
Top speed420km/h+
Base price€1.5 million