Inside Koenigsegg
We go behind the scenes as Sweden’s supercar manufacturer readies a very special newcomer
As far as Christian von Koenigsegg’s 80-year-old father Jesko knows, Koenigsegg’s new hypercar is called Ragnarok. The name references the mythological Norse apocalypse, and the car has been conceived to succeed the Agera line on Koenigsegg’s 25th anniversary. Christian describes it as a roadlegal track car to pick up where Agera RS left off: ‘Visceral and raw; a final hurrah for internal-combustion engines only in our cars.’
Jesko is being kept away from the project, but Christian has handed him the press kit before he attends the Geneva motor show, as always. Ragnarok, Ragnarok, Ragnarok, goes the text. Definitely called Ragnarok.
The figures are astonishing: a V8 twin-turbo good for a staggering 1262bhp on 95 RON fuel, a more staggering 1578bhp on E85 biofuel, up to 1400kg of downforce, a circa-300mph top end, at least $2.8m for each of 125 units. Those figures make even McLaren’s track-focused Senna wilt, certainly on paper, and the focus is on handling as much as power. Christian expects it to be the ‘fastest fully homologated car around big racetracks.’
Just eight days before its Geneva unveiling, we’ve come to Koenigsegg in Angelholm, Sweden, for a preview of the new hypercar. Christian has already arrived in his Tesla Model S, untucked blue checked shirt, black trainers, green jeans, nice watch, casual but definitely smart. Staff seem unfazed, simply cracking on rather than jumping to attention.
The new hypercar is unmistakably Koenigsegg, with its dihedral doors opening up like a pistol-twirling cowboy and the trademark fighter-jet canopy. Worryingly, though, much remains to be done: the car is raised on axle stands, empty sockets for headlights, interior a shell, front and rear clamshells –now manufactured in two pieces rather than one – permanently open. The monster double-profile rear wing is missing. Its supports will be mounted far up the rear clamshell, with the boomerang-shaped spoiler floating over the rear end for the best aero performance.
But this car will be finished on caffeine and overtime, and when it’s unveiled it will spring a huge surprise not only on Geneva showgoers, but on Jesko himself. Because Ragnarok is simply an internal pseudonym, and Koenigsegg’s new über track car is actually named in his honour: Jesko. It’s Koenigsegg’s Enzo. Only Jesko is still around to see it.
Koenigsegg’s story is one of remarkable success in a business of odds-on failure. Aged just 22 in 1994, Christian von Koenigsegg began building the Koenigsegg CC. It took until 2002 for series production of the CC8S to start, but 150 Koenigseggs have been hand-assembled since, including madness like the One:1 (1360bhp and 1360kg) and the 1500bhp hybrid Regera that dispenses entirely with a gearbox.
There’d be no Koenigsegg Automotive without Jesko, who made his fortune in agricultural irrigation and computer-controlled climate systems during the ’80s. When Christian set his heart on building supercars, Jesko ‘came to help for five or six weeks but ended up working day and night for five years,’ recalls his son. Sold his house for funding, too. Jesko’s great passion lay with horses, not horsepower; he was an amateur jockey, owned stables, and had pro jockeys race for him. The Jesko’s white and green references the jockeys’ colours.
Like the Agera, the Jesko is built around a monocoque of carbonfibre and aluminium sandwich construction. There is Dyneema reinforcement – claimed to be the strongest fibre in the world – plus integrated fuel tanks and rollover bar, all designed and manufactured by Koenigsegg. Claimed class-leading torsional rigidity of 65,000Nm per degree carries over from the Agera, but the tub is 40mm longer and 22mm higher to improve ⊲
Part powerboat, part fighter jet, it’s dominated by its aero and cooling from a distance,
and by its detail up close
Before customer cars become actual reality, much work remains. As yet, no prototypes are running
cabin space and visibility over previous Koenigseggs’ visor-like feel. The doors’ synchro-helix hinges are also revised for easier access.
The mid-mounted 5.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 shares only its 90º vee and 100mm bore spacing with the Ford blocks Koenigseggs originally used; the aluminium block is cast by Grainger and Worrall in the UK then milled on-site in Sweden. Super-sized turbochargers run 1.5-bar boost, the inevitable lag counteracted by a 20-litre carbon tank of air that gives a 20-bar shot to set turbine blades spinning earlier than exhaust gases can. It was a much lighter solution than adding extra turbos, explains Christian.
There are tumble valves on the intake side to help meet emissions standards, and pistons that weigh just 290g, conrods just 540g – both steel but said to be similar in weight if stronger than the previous titanium.
Active engine mounts stifle vibrations from a flat-plane crankshaft milled from high-tensile Dievar steel in southern Sweden. It’s Koenigsegg’s first, and helps – along with those feathery moving parts – this turbocharged V8 with a long 95.5mm stroke reach 8500rpm. At 12.5kg, it’s said to be the lightest flat-plane crank in a production car, ‘and there’s hardly any flywheel, so it revs like a F1 engine in neutral’, promises Christian.
Supercar makers are split on the merits of heavier but faster-shifting dual-clutch gearboxes and lighter but slower automated-manual alternatives. Christian says his own nine-speed Light Speed Transmission is the best of both. ‘It weighs 90kg where a dual-clutch is 120-140kg, and that includes the starter motor, flywheel and fluids.’ It’s 50 per cent more compact than the Agera’s automated manual transmission, helping centre more weight between the axles.
Shifts ‘occur in virtually zero time’, and you can either cycle through gears sequentially with the paddles or stick in the centre console, or pull through a second ‘notch’ on either to directly select the lowest possible gear, say ninth to fourth, blam. The entire project, from concept to design and manufacture has been conducted in-house. Testing will span 60,000 miles. The gearbox must process 1106lb ft, and quite a lot of speed.
Max revs in ninth gear gives a theoretical 315mph. ‘This car’s aero won’t allow that, so we’re doing a low-drag version, a hyper GT. It will be more road-biased, with electric seats, and you’ll be able to stow the removable roof under the bonnet [not possible in the regular Jesko], plus the rear wing will be quite different.’ Extra testing means a higher price of around $3m, and it’ll be called the Jesko 300 – the plan is to break 300mph. (The Agera RS hit 284.55mph on a closed Nevada road.)
I ask Christian if perhaps 1578bhp and instant gearshifts to the lowest possible ratio isn’t overkill on a rear-wheel-drive track car. He concedes that one gear at a time will be more suitable for track use: ‘Jumping gears works better on the road, when you want to go from a lazy cruise to a spirited drive instantly.’
But he stresses that Koenigseggs offer impressive traction and the Jesko should deploy 1200-1300bhp usably, partly down to tyres, aero and combustion-based traction control, but also inherently sound chassis design. He points to the wishbones, claimed to be the industry’s longest front and rear, and softer suspension than a pure track car.
Featuring electronically adjustable Öhlins dampers, the suspension is an evolution of Agera principles, with Koenigsegg’s Triplex damper design at the rear. The Triplex is braced horizontally between suspension mounts, ⊲
and it’s this rather than the V8 – pushed far up to the bulkhead – that first draws your attention with the clamshell open, like a jewelled staff in a display case.
The Triplex damper helps resist squat under acceleration and aero loads, but this time it also incorporates a helper spring. It can be locked out to lower the Jesko in Track mode and triples spring rates. It’s similar in concept to the Ford GT’s set-up, if quite different in execution, and can drop the ride height from 1100mm to 700mm. For the first time, there’s also a second Triplex damper up front, helping balance aero loads. There is, after all, plenty of downforce as speed builds and the active front splitter and rear wing get working: 800kg of the stuff at 156mph, 1000kg at 172mph, a peak of 1400kg, 40 per cent over the Agera RS.
Rear-wheel steering is also a first for Koenigsegg, turning the rear wheels in the opposite direction to the fronts at low speed, the same way for higher-speed stability. Carbon-ceramic discs gripped by Koenigsegg’s own design of caliper take care of stopping, with Michelin tyres. Cups are standard, while the optional Cup 2 Rs offer a 10 per cent greater contact patch in the same footprint owing to larger tread blocks, and an estimated 10-30 per cent performance gain.
Either way, the tyres will be wrapped round a choice of standard alloys, or hollow-spoke Aircore carbonfibre wheels, reinvented by Koenigsegg. We watch an employee wearing green gloves carefully but – with the speed gifted by repetition – quickly wrapping pre-preg carbonfibre around plastic spokes that are somehow removed during production, the as-yet-unwrapped ends exploded discordantly. Another employee strolls past with a finished wheel casually tucked beneath his arm. The PR man has told us the 20-inch front wheels weigh just 6.7kg, the 21-inch rears 8.4kg. Now the wheels are being weighed again. ‘Guess how much?’ beams Christian. ‘It’s 5.9kg front, 7.4kg rear!’
Eight days later, crowds gather at the Koenigsegg stand, a low-slung projectile draped with grey silk its alluring centrepiece. Christian’s wife Halldora takes the floor. ‘It’s a very emotional day for us,’ she says, ‘because we also have someone here who has been so important for the Koenigsegg company, and that is Christian’s father, Jesko.’
Halldora beckons a surprised-looking Jesko and Christian’s mother Brita forwards. There’s lots of cuddles… and definitely something in my eye. Halldora composes herself and continues: ‘It is my great honour to tell you something, Jesko … today we are unveiling this beautiful mega car, and we have decided to name it after you, as a tribute to your life, your legacy and everything you have done for Koenigsegg.’
Jesko scrunches up his face in a doomed attempt to contain the overwhelming emotion of the occasion, then clasps his hands, raising them like his horse just passed the post. Christian takes over to give us the spec, but barely manages to say that his father ‘is for sure the best supporter I ever had’ before choking up. This must be the most touching car unveiling ever.
The wraps come off and the crudely part-assembled Jesko we saw just eight days ago is now literally a show-stopper, perhaps too derivative of other Koenigseggs to really bring home the changes wrought, but there’s no doubt it’s captivating. Part powerboat, part fighter jet, it’s dominated by its aero and cooling from a distance, and holds your attention close-up with lush quality and detail.
AutoSkin – Koenigsegg’s robotised hydraulic system – opens the front and rear clamshells and both doors. The interior, so recently an empty shell, now looks lavish, from glossy exposed carbonfibre and metallic finishes to the rich alcantara and leather. There’s a five-inch SmartCluster that swivels with the steering wheel but keeps the revs, speed and gear info level as it turns, a bit like the centre cap of a Rolls-Royce wheel. An analogue g-meter sits up on the dashtop to confirm how violently you’re driving. Christian announces they have down payments on around 90 of 125 cars already, after showing the Jesko on virtual-reality goggles previously. That quickly rises to around 100. Before customer cars become actual reality, though, much work remains. As yet, no prototypes are running, and probably seven will be built, plus two monocoques for crash testing. The programme will start this summer. The first Jesko will be produced away from the assembly line as workers adapt, and once they do, it’ll move to the eight-step line, with giant grey letters from A to H hanging overhead.
Like the Regeras part-built today, Jeskos will be generic to step C of the assembly process, and from step D they’ll get a chassis number, along with all the customer spec differentiation that entails. Right now, Regeras are jumping production stations every other week, and by April that should be each week; Christian hopes to make 30-40 cars a year, up from low double figures last year. The first Jeskos will be with their owners by late 2020.
There are big plans for the future, too. NEVS – National Electric Vehicle Sweden – owns 20 per cent of Koenigsegg, and the next hypercar will be a joint venture with production in the hundreds. Christian confirms the V8 will continue, this time with Koenigsegg’s Freevalve technology that eliminates camshafts, and mated to a hybrid system less complex than the Regera’s. We learn it will be all-wheel drive, adopt electric power steering, that… then the PR man shuts his boss down.
The name of that hybrid hypercar? It’s clear Christian owes a huge debt to his mother Brita, also an entrepreneur. But it’s his wife Halldora who’s more active at Koenigsegg, and like Jesko has more business nous than car passion. Perhaps her name sounds more like Sarah or something to Swedes, but to an English-speaker it’s a great name for a hypercar. I wouldn’t give great odds on keeping that hushed up until next year’s Geneva show, though, Christian.
The wraps come o and the crudely part-assembled Jesko we saw just eight days ago is now literally a show-stopper