Koenigsegg Regera could become the next record-breaker

For a comparatively young manufacturer such as Koenigsegg - which is approaching its 25th anniversary - its influence has been far greater than its modest size might suggest.

2017 was an especially memorable year. The Swedish marque claimed a string of world records with the Agera RS, including the highest speed achieved on a public road, a record that had stood virtually unchallenged for… 80 years.

Christian von Koenigsegg, the brand’s founder and CEO, has also broadened his interests by investing in the development of the combustion engine. He is currently developing a camshaft-free engine and, in the process, created a new company: Freevalve.

Although it remains a small manufacturer, Koenigsegg is continuing to expand. Its workforce has reached 165 people, with a further 60 employees due to join the company gradually. This is all intended to sustain the ambitious pace of building one car per week. The plan was to produce 38 cars in 2018, although Christian told Road & Track at the Geneva Motor Show that he would be happy to finish the year with 28.

Koenigsegg’s future will feature… monsters

Speaking again to the American publication, Christian von Koenigsegg discussed what lies ahead. And, judging by how he described the brand’s current two models, the future looks set to be populated by monsters:

“(The Regera) is very fierce, in any case, but it is like a soft monster. Whereas the Agera RS is not such a soft monster. It is more like a classic monster.”

The first monster to arrive will be the Agera RS successor, the car that became the holder of five world speed records in 2017. As the official fastest car on the planet, whatever follows it will have plenty to prove.

The final Agera RS was built in March. Christian said that work on its replacement had already begun, with the project having started 18 months earlier. He offered no specifications, but promised that the new model would make its first appearance at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, followed by the production version a year later, in 2020.

By the time the new model arrives, and if Mr Koenigsegg’s calculations are correct, there will still be 20 Regeras left to build. That would fulfil the commitment, made after the Regera’s unveiling, to always have two models in the range.

Regera: the next record-breaker?

Unlike the Agera, the Regera can be regarded as the small manufacturer’s GT - more luxury-focused, better equipped and even more “politically correct”. It is a hybrid hypercar, yet no less fierce than we have come to expect from the Swedish marque: it puts 1,500 hp beneath the driver’s right foot, courtesy of a twin-turbo V8 and three electric motors, resulting in devastating performance.

The “soft monster” - so named because, like a pure electric car, it has just one ratio, ensuring an uninterrupted flow of power - is preparing to become one of 2018’s leading protagonists, despite any successor still being far away. The Regera will also be put through its paces and demonstrate its full potential in the sort of tests undertaken by the Agera RS, such as the 0–400 km/h–0 run, a record spectacularly taken from the Bugatti Chiron.

Regera performance testing begins this summer

We will find out what it can do this summer. According to Christian, several tests have already been completed, bringing some new tuning measures better suited to circuits:

“(…) the results are honestly shocking.”

Initial testing showed that the Regera can match the One:1 (1,360 hp for 1,360 kg) around the brand’s local circuit. That is remarkable when considering that the Regera weighs around 200 kg more and generates far less downforce. However, its distinctive powertrain means it is “always in the right gear”; in other words, all of that 1,500 hp is available almost instantly at all times, compensating for the additional weight and lower aerodynamic load.

Will it be quick enough to take the Agera RS’s place as the fastest car on the planet? Do not miss the next episodes…