The making of the legend of Koenigsegg, Sweden’s record-breaking ‘‘megacar’’ marque…
The Koenigsegg story begins, in its purest form, in the rolling hills of a mythical town called Pinchcliffe. At the Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, to be exact — Ivo Caprino’s 1975 stop motion film featuring a bicycle repairman named Theodore Rimspoke and his animal cohorts. In the film, notably the most popular in Norwegian history, Rimspoke conspires to build the fastest car ever made and win his hometown’s GP against a traitorous ex-assistant. When an impressionable Christian von Koenigsegg first watched it wide-eyed as a child, Rimspoke’s ambition resonated so deeply he turned to his father as they left the cinema and declared that, one day, he too would build the fastest car in the land.
“That’s what I’m going to do when I grow up, I told my father,” Christian recalls of that distant afternoon. “I’m going to be that bicycle repairman.” All kids dream, of course. But Rimspoke, described as “an independent sort of fellow, more of an inventor than a businessman,” parallels Christian in ways too uncanny to ignore.
While the fictional Scandinavian craftsman made his name inventing a dualengined, copper-bodied hotrod dubbed Il Tempo Gigante (with spinning onboard radar, naturally), this thoughtful, determined Scandinavian has also made his name inventing machines of absurd provenance. “I think it was a combination,” mulls Christian when asked if it was more Rimspoke himself or Il Tempo Gigante that inspired his vision quest. “There was something amazing about putting something on paper, and then you go out and replicate it and manifest it, and then it makes noises and spits fire and beats the establishment,” he continues. “Just everything about it.”
Although he started designing cars when he was five years old, the realisation of an actual automotive brand didn’t materialise until the ripe age of 22. After proving his entrepreneurial aptitude in the food wholesaling industry, in 1994 Christian sat at his computer and drew the first lines of what would become the CC concept. Koenigsegg Automotive AB was born on that warm August afternoon, and soon he was contacting experts in chassis manufacturing and composite parts, assembling a small cadre to create the first Koenigsegg prototype.
“It took two years from starting drawing to have something rough to drive,” he recalls. That first CC prototype debuted in the summer of 1996, running exhibition laps at the Swedish DPR race, fittingly at the old Anderstorp Formula One racetrack (sadly, not Pinchcliffe). Amid a field of homologated racecars like McLaren F1s, Jaguar XJ220s and Ferrari F40s, the Swedish debutante was met with as much cockeyed suspicion as fanfare.
But now, less than a quarter century later, the Koenigsegg name is no longer met with doubt — rather it has quickly grown into legend in the famously immolating world of supercar manufacturers. Christian is no longer an outsider, but rather has elevated his surname into the pantheon of 21st century automotive greats, joining the rarefied stratosphere of Elon Musk and Horatio Pagani. The trio are to this millennium what industry goliaths like Ettore Bugatti, Ferdinand Porsche and Enzo Ferrari were to the last. The foundation for Koenigsegg’s lofty reputation has always been in innovation and engineering. Most famously, its revolutionary carbon fiber monocoque chassis — at the time only seen in the McLaren F1, widely considered the world’s first hypercar. But Koenigsegg’s initial CC prototype did not feature a carbon fibre monocoque, rather it utilised a space-frame tubular chassis instead.
The F1 proved to be a hugely influential vehicle for the young inventor. Surprisingly, it wasn’t from its use of a carbon fiber, however, but rather from McLaren’s big-picture perspective. “I read, I think it was Car magazine, which had the first silver McLaren prototype on its cover,” Christian recalls. “It was a stunning car which did not come from the established supercar manufacturers, and had a philosophy that was very close to my heart: simplicity, low weight, suspension systems, much more racing-inspired than from say the Italian and German manufacturers. Just on a different level.”
What he remembers of that day first seeing the F1 wasn’t so much joy, but rather… frustration. Resentment at his inaction. “I felt like, Damn. That is what I was supposed to do, and now they’ve gone and done it. I can’t wait any longer. So it really triggered me to start. If I wouldn’t have read that magazine, maybe I would have waited another couple years.” But he did eventually appropriate the concept of a carbon fiber monocoque, debuting that revolutionary chassis design in his CC8S production prototype at the 2000 Paris Motor Show. Even though the gestation period to produce a marketable vehicle was pronounced (from 1994 to 2002), that developmental era was really the foundational soil from which every Koenigsegg since has grown.
“It’s a very clear lineage back to everything we’re doing,” Christian says. “It’s almost shocking in a way, even to me, how fruitful those ideas were. We’ve only tweaked them and perfected them. We haven’t really changed much — and we’re still competing, today in 2020, with the same philosophy that I came up with almost as a teenager.”
Koenigsegg’s hypercars — or as they prefer to dub them, “megacars” — are an evolution, slowly morphing from model to model, with certain foundational elements core to the brand (e.g. carbon fiber chassis, mid-engine layout, V8 powerplant) acting as its DNA. The US$2.2-million Regera, the company’s first hybrid, is 80% new compared to its predecessor the Agera. Take its chassis: the outer dimensions are similar, but the interior monocoque is altered for battery packs, new crash regulations and other considerations.
The next two-seater megacar in the company’s lineage, the US$2.8-million Jesko, will also offer a completely new, slightly bigger monocoque. “The One:1 and the Agera RS are the same
gene pool, I would say, but the Regera is a completely new creature,” states Christian. “Then the Jesko, again, a completely new creature. That is very much a ground-up car.”
Another major element to Koenigsegg’s singularity is its powerplant: brilliant V8 blocks which have slowly morphed over time, growing from 4.7 to 5.0 litres, and always featuring apex-level engineering. The innovations have proven both prolific and remunerative: the One:1 is the only vehicle in the world to match a horsepower for every kilo of weight, and they have notched countless Guinness World Records for speed, power and acceleration, toppling the Bugattis and Hennesseys of the world.
Koenigsegg is a tiny niche automaker (about 400 employees) throwing haymakers at multibillion-dollar international OEMs, and continuously laying them on that mat. They are the starry-eyed bicycle repairman in the workshop, building dream machines that conquer worlds.
The CC8S was the first vehicle to feature an early version of the 655-hp proprietary Koenigsegg engine. It earned a Guinness World Record for most powerful homologated production car in the world. “To go to 806 horsepower was a huge headache,” Christian recalls in his slight Swedish accent. “But then when we had our own platform to go from 800- to 900- to 1,000-horsepower. And then onwards and onwards, and now we’re at 1,600 [horses]. It kind of has been an easier path somehow. Because when you know your foundation, the strengths and weaknesses, and you can work on it for years and hone it, tweak it, reinforce and figure it out, it just seems there is no real end to what you can do to an engine of that size.”
The decades of powerplant engineering have now peaked, twofold. First with the final evolution of the 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8, fitted in the upcoming Jesko Absolut, which Christian promises will be the fastest Koenigsegg that will ever be built. The Absolut will markthe end of a lineage, the Apex Internal Combustion Engine, coursing with over 1,600 horses (on E85 biofuel) and boasting a ludicrous 300 mph top speed. Post-Jesko, the Swedes are pivoting to a hybrid powertrain built around a groundbreaking engine, amicably dubbed the Tiny Friendly Giant (TFG).
This TFG is designed to be the most intelligent, most advanced, and most efficient petroleum-powered engine the world has ever seen. Envisioned specifically to make the upcoming US$1.7-million Gemera even plausible, the minuscule 2.0-liter/3-cylinder engine utilises innovative cam-less architecture and valve technology to somehow generate a mind-boggling 600 horsepower. Let that sink in for a moment: 600 horses, out of three cylinders.
With so much already accomplished, it almost defies logic that Koenigsegg — both man and machine—are somehow only just hitting their stride. When that is mentioned to Christian, he chuckles lightly. “It’s funny you say that, because after 26 years, the company still very much feels like we’re in some kind of startup mode,” he says wistfully. “Now we’ve been growing organically, so it’s been really step-by-step to safeguard the company not to stumble, and soon we will grow big. But it’s interesting from that perspective, and I’m only 47. So yeah, I’m growing old together with the company.”
THE GEMERA MEGA-GT
In a copycat industry the concept of a sui generis vehicle is nonexistent. Everything is born from another. Except for the Koenigsegg Gemera, that is: the world’s first (and only) mid-engine, four-seater coupé megacar — what the brand is dubbing the “world’s first Mega-GT.” The mere idea is so ludicrous, so farfetched, that only a literal visionary (and arguable lunatic) would have the gall to even attempt to manifest it from hazy daydream sketch to wrought carbon fibre.
“The idea basically came about probably in 2004,” Koenigsegg tells us. “My wife and I had our first son in 2001, and I noticed that I couldn’t take the family out in a two-seater. So I started thinking: Is there a way to have the sensation of a mid-engine two seater — which is totally different than a front-engine car—and still have space for four full grownups? Without the compromise you have in other GT cars where you cram them in the back…. I just felt there has got to be a way to have this Koenigsegg DNA in a four seater.”
To make an unprecedented vehicle like this possible, the Gemera required not just one quantum breakthrough, but two. First, a powerplant dilemma had to be solved: engineering an internal combustion engine that was powerful enough to qualify as a supercar, yet diminutive enough to still fit behind four passengers. The three-cylinder TFG engine is somehow small enough to shoehorn behind four adults, yet still balance mass properly (and leave room for a trunk).
The Koenigsegg Direct Drive (KDD) system marries that TFG to an electric powertrain with three motors (two rear, one up front) that all directly drive the single-gear transmission. This setup provides otherworldly power (combined 1,677 hp and 2,580 lb-ft of torque) and acceleration (0-60 mph in under two seconds), requiring only a small 800V battery that sheds significant weight over pure EV powertrains, and offers nearly 600 miles on a single tank (with full charge). All while comfortably seating four adults.
The second quantum leap is figuring out how to enter and egress four passengers gracefully, using only two doors. That requires a stupendously long portal that somehow won’t take out vehicles in neighboring zip codes when opened. This is where the Gemera’s Bpillar- less architecture marries with Koenigsegg’s signature dihedral synchro-helix door — a clever mechanism that swings the two-meterlong doors out and then upwards.
“What Christian likes to say is it’s a have your cake and eat-it-too kind of car. There’s absolutely no compromises,” notes Sasha Selipanov, lead designer of the Gemera. “It’s pretty much the fastest thing you can possibly have, four two-metre-tall people fit inside, there’s four heated and cooled cupholders, Netflix. You name it man, every single thingyou can imagine — that’s what makes it a Mega-GT.”
A meteoric star in automotive design, Selipanov first made a name in the field when his design was handpicked for the Bugatti Chiron from an open competition in the VW Group, and joined Koenigsegg last October to complete the entire exterior surfacing of the Gemera— a unicorn of a vehicle with no predecessor to emulate or even riff off of. What they achieved in a dizzying three months is nothing short of miraculous. The Gemera does not appear like a fatherless bastard one-off, or an exquisite corpse of composite vehicles, but rather feels fully baked out of the oven. Elegant, minimalist and well balanced, the Gemera boasts exceptional proportions when its parameters should render it a monstrosity.
“The main contribution I hope I had in this project is making it fit into the lineage of Koenigsegg,” explains Selipanov. “Make it a beautiful car without any asterisk, where you have to say It’s beautiful for a four seater. No, it’s beautiful. Period.” ■
By NICOLAS STECHER
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