It’s pretty clear Christian von Koenigsegg wants to build the fastest cars on the planet. He and his team have been chasing speed for years, routinely pushing the limits and developing new technologies. His efforts have not gone unnoticed, and with his latest generation of hypercars, Koenigsegg has reached truly unbelievable speeds. Not so long ago, if you built a car that could crack 200 miles per hour, whilst looking exotic, you were really something special.
Nowadays though, that isn’t good enough. 300 miles per hour is the newest hypercar goal, and while a small few have dipped into the 300s under special circumstances, it hasn’t yet become a mainstream number. Koenigsegg might just have the solution for this very first-world problem. Currently, the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolute (Koenigsegg’s theoretical fastest car) has not been tested at the limit, but Christian says that may happen at some point, and it appears the results may shock the world.
Koenigsegg has been building supercars since 1994, and brought out his first car in the year 2000 called the CC8S. That car was powered by a 4.6 liter Ford V-8 that put out 655 horsepower. An impressive figure for the time but even more impressive was its performance stats, zero to sixty in 3.5 seconds, a quarter mile time of just 10 seconds, and finally a top speed of 240 miles per hour.
For the time, and a brand-new supercar builder, these numbers were unbelievably impressive. To this day, Koenigsegg has never produced a car that didn’t crush the 200-mile-per-hour mark. Here are 10 of Koenigsegg’s fastest creations.
10 Koenigsegg CCXR: 249 Mph
Known as their first “flower power” car, Koenigsegg implemented a flex-fuel approach to the mighty CCX. The CCXR, when running bio-friendly E85 fuel, produced 1018 horsepower from its 4.7 liter V-8 engine. The CCXR might not be the newest Koenigsegg model, but it can sure hold its own in a battle for speed.
With a Koenigsegg-built engine rather than the modular ford units used in the past, Christian and his team can proudly boast a massive 249 mile per hour, all-Swedish top speed. The CCXR stands as the final version of Koenigseggs original hypercar design.
9 Koenigsegg Agera: 249 Mph
Agera, meaning, “to take action” in Swedish, tells its story even before the engine is started. Sometimes the least visually loud one is the most impressive. No extra letters or special editions here, just Koenigsegg at its best. Gone is the manual and in is the seven-speed dual-clutch auto.
The Agera leads the second generation of go-fast Koenigseggs puts down a seriously impressive 249 mile per hour top speed with its 947 horsepower twin-turbo V-8. Agera features Koenigseggs new architecture, body, and even vortex-generating wheels that create a positive airflow from under the car and wheel wells to help cool the brakes as well as manage air pressure.
8 Koenigsegg Gemera: 249 Mph
Innovation is strong at Koenigsegg and the Gemera is proof. Using just a tiny three-cylinder engine weighing only 155 pounds along with a three-motor electric hybrid system, the Koenigsegg Gemera achieves a massive 1,700 horsepower and 2,583 pound-feet of torque. Don’t blink, because this helps propel the four-seat Koenigsegg to 60 miles per hour in just 1.9 seconds on its way to a terminal velocity of 249 miles per hour.
With its Koenigsegg exclusive “freevalve” head design, the “Tiny Friendly Giant” three-cylinder engine as it’s described internally uses a cam-free valve train that saves weight while adding more adjustability per combustion cycle. The result is an almost unbelievable 600 horsepower from just the 2.0 liter internal combustion engine alone.
7 Koenigsegg Regera: 251 Mph
A technological mindbender. For this super high-speed luxury special labeled as a “luxury menacer”, Koenigsegg developed a very trick single speed transmission system called “direct drive”. The hybrid hypercar is so powerful and has such an impressive power to weight ratio that a single ratio between the engine and the wheels is all that is necessary to propel the Regera to its 251 mile per hour top speed.
The car produces 1,500 horsepower with 700 of that total consisting of electric-only power. See that massive exhaust out back? It’s not for gasoline fumes, but instead to radiate heat produced by its electrical system inverter. The Regera is an engineering wonder. It’s massive top speed is a testament to the engineering genius of Koenigsegg.
6 Koenigsegg Agera R: 261 Mph
With it’s flex-fuel 5.0 liter twin-turbo V-8, the 1,140 horsepower Agera R reins in a new era for Agera and Koenigsegg. 260 miles per hour has been achieved as multiple areas of the car have been overhauled including brakes, body panels, aero canards out front, a free-flowing exhaust, a higher redline, and the ability to run on E85 fuel.
E85 helps Koenigsegg achieve significantly higher horsepower numbers and gives these models an extra push towards a higher top speed. The Agera R is a massive step forward for the Agera platform and exists as a more accurate representation of what a Koenigsegg is capable of.
5 Koenigsegg Agera S: 261 Mph
The slowest car here is still faster that most other supercars. It seems it is impossible for Koenigsegg to produce anything but an impressive speed weapon. In fact Koenigsegg has never produced a car that hasn’t been capable of reaching over 200 miles per hour. Their very first car, the CC8S was able to reach 242 miles per hour, eclipsing nearly every other car, including the famous record holder, the McLaren F1 at 241 miles per hour.
With the Agera models, things were turned up a notch reaching four digit horsepower figures and rocking the world with near 250 mile per hour speeds. At this level, every mile per hour counts, and so does each mile of road as you’ll be covering substantial distances at these speeds. Agera S caters to markets that don’t offer E85 fuels as options by optimizing the gasoline powered engine to be as aggressive as the E85 powered Agera R.
4 Koenigsegg One:1 : 273 Mph
At this point Christian Von Koenigsegg is just trolling the industry. One megawatt of power, and a power to weight ratio that equals out to one horsepower per kilogram or a perfect 1:1 ratio. The final horsepower of 1,360 is equal to one megawatt of power, an incredible feat in a ICE V-8 road car. This is how the car got its name.
The 0ne:1 is an exercise in balancing lightweighting with power. Based on an Agera, this all-motor special is what happens when you take an already light car, lighten it again, and add some power just for good measure. Koenigsegg employed a new 3D printed turbo design to push innovation while chasing top speed. The result is a massive top speed of 273 miles per hour.
3 Koenigsegg Agera RS: 277 Mph
With up to 1,150 horsepower, the Koenigsegg Agera RS achieves a substantial goal as the Agera’s final edition cars. This version takes learnings from the S, R, and One:1 models of the Agera, and combines them into one phenomenal package. Agera RS retains the massive top speed of the other models, but includes added downforce with a special aero package (namely the trick rear wing), as well as some lightweighting measures to ensure proper Agera performance on and off the track.
Agera RS has proved itself as one of the world’s fastest cars by achieving a 277 mile per hour official top speed by taking the average of two consecutive runs up and back on the same stretch of road. To this day Agera RS remains one of the fastest proven road cars to ever be tested at its theoretical top speed.
2 Koenigsegg Jesko: 310 Mph Estimated
What happens when you want one of the world's fastest cars, but also enjoy corners and track time. The Koenigsegg Jesko is your answer to ultimate track and cornering capability. This hypercar’s top speed is definitely drag limited, otherwise it would be able to achieve a staggering theoretical speed of over 330 miles per hour.
For the Jesko models Christian wanted both a high downforce car (Jesko), as well as a model aimed purely at straight-line speed (jesko absolute). Amazingly even though it’s not meant for all-out speed, the Jesko is still the second-fastest car to ever come from Koenigsegg. If the car is eventually tested and hits its estimated top speed, that would make the Jesko faster than the Bugatti Chiron (Super Sport 300+).
1 Koenigsegg Jesko Absolute: 330 Mph+ Estimated
300 miles per hour! This, amazingly, isn’t the final goal speed of the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolute. Christian reckons the car will do at least 330 and possibly up to 350 miles per hour, making it the fastest production car ever. We are talking about cruising speeds faster than some private luxury aircraft. The “absolute” in Jesko absolute is meant to signify one of if not the “absolute” final answer in automotive speed.
Powered by the newest version of Koeningsegg’s V-8, this time a flat-plane crank, pushing 1,280 horsepower on normal fuel or 1,600 on E85. The Jesko Absolute boasts a drag coefficient of just 0.278, making it incredibly aerodynamic whilst impressively powerful. The car is named after Christian von Koenigsegg’s Father, Jesko von Koenigsegg.