What's the news?
Ah, the Swedes. You know where you stand with a Swede, and their car. It'll be all about subtle, but pleasing design, silk-touch surfaces and a commitment to protecting the environ... Wait, what?
This is no ordinary Swede. This is the Koenigsegg One:1 - the latest in a line of mental supercars to come from Swedish industrialist Christian Koenigsegg. While previous cars have pushed the boundaries of acceleration and performance, the One:1 is something else again. That name refers to its power-to-weight ratio, specifically the ratio between kilos and horsepower. Yup, the One:1 has 1hp for every kilo of weight. And it weighs 1,340kg...
That gives it a power output way, way beyond anything the McLaren P1, Ferrari LaFerrari or Porsche 918 can produce and it's even got a handy 200hp to spare over and above what the most powerful Bugatti Veyron can manage. The One:1 is based on Koenigsegg's previous Agera model and like that car uses a 5.0-litre V8 engine with twin turbochargers. It's already claimed to be able to hit a top speed of 273mph, but Koenigsegg is already hinting that 280mph might be in sight.
Its carbon fibre chassis is around a fifth lighter than the Agera it's based on and it's packing active aerodynamics, active ride height, variable suspension and a titanium exhaust. That wild rear wing gives it around 600kg of downforce at high speed, which is reassuring.
It can pull 2g in corners, even on road-legal tyres, and there's even an app for it; a telemetry recorder than can communicate with your iPhone.
Anything else?
Koenigsegg isn't naming a price or a production run but says that any One:1s that will be built have already been sold.
Neil Briscoe - 15 Mar 2014