What is Koenigsegg?
If you don’t already know, Koenigsegg is a Swedish car company that produces some the fastest cars this world has ever seen. They have named themselves “mega-car” producers, and I’m not inclined to disagree with them on that one (more on why I don’t disagree later). They produce very few cars, and each car they produce has an exorbitant price tag, though I wouldn’t necessarily say that a high price isn’t warranted for these vehicles. Each of their vehicles achieve astounding levels of performance, look good enough to make James Bond say “damn” and take about 600 hours to assemble, so while I do think their prices are too high, I understand why they are high.
Two of their most popular cars are the Koenigsegg Agera and Regera, both of which are quite popular in the Need For Speed video games. The Agera was actually the star of the Need For Speed movie and is the more popular of the two.
This company was started in 1994 by a man named Christian von Koenigsegg who had one goal in mind, to build his dream car. He wanted to build a car that made no compromises when it came to performance, and I’d say that it’s clear he did.
In my opinion, though it may not be true, I’ve always felt that Koenigsegg is always the one to knock Bugatti off its high horse. Each time Bugatti broke a record, Koenigsegg was on their heals, forcing Bugatti to innovate and improve, which by extension forced Koenigsegg to do the same. Competition is always of course great for us, the consumer.
What is the Koenigsegg One:1?
The Koenigsegg One:1 (pronounced one-to-one) is a car that achieves a power to weight ratio of 1:1, though not in Freedom (American) units. It is built upon the platform of the Agera, it shares several things in common with the Agera R. There are of course several different versions of the Agera, there is the R, the S, the RS, the Final Edition and the One:1. I personally think the One:1 is the most impressive of them. In fact, I feel that the One:1 is to Koenigsegg as the Aventador SVJ (read my article about the SVJ here or watch my YouTube video about it here) is to Lamborghini, a truly monstrous car that helped gain their respective brands respect and attention.
The One:1 produces 1341 horsepower and weighs in at 1360 kilograms (2998 lbs), and right about now you’re probably thinking to yourself that this doesn’t amount to a power to weight ratio of 1:1. That’s because it doesn’t, at least not when it’s measured in these units. In order for the 1:1 power to weight ratio to be realized, the power of the One:1 must be measured in units of Pferdestarke (PS), which is a German unit used for measuring power, 1 PS = 0.986 horsepower, and the car produces 1 PS for each kilogram it weighs. Now in freedom units, this car would have a power to weight ratio of 2.24 lbs/hp. In my article about power to weight ratios (read that article here), I classified the power to weight ratio of a twin turbo LS1 swapped Miata as terrifyingly fast and absurd, and that was a power to weight ratio of 2.34 lbs/hp. The One:1 has an even better power to weight ratio, most people, including me, aren’t able to even fathom how crazy this is.
The One:1 makes more power per pound than a twin turbo LS1 Miata, which for all intents and purposes, is a death trap. The acceleration offered by the One:1 would be something out of this world to experience, and according to reviewers, it is nothing short of insane. Words really can’t do it justice.
As far as I can tell, this is the only production, street legal car that has a power to weight ratio of 1:1, despite it not being achieved in standard units. The Bugatti Bolide does have a better power to weight ratio, but it isn’t street legal. To be fair, although the One:1 is technically a production car, there were only 7 produced. Two of which went to Europe, four to Asia and one to the USA.
Koenigsegg has proclaimed that the One:1 is a mega-car, because it outputs one megawatt of power, and I agree. I’d say that the class of super or hyper car wouldn’t do the One:1 justice, it deserves to be in a class of its own, which makes it a mega-car.
Performance Specs & Pricing
The One:1 is powered by a 5.0 litre twin-turbo V8 that produces 1341 horsepower when fueled with E85, and 1161 horsepower when fueled with pump gas. Some people may be disappointed by hearing that max power can only come from E85, but I think that making over 1100 horsepower on pump gas is just ridiculous for a stock car. This motor is mated to a 7-speed automatic dual clutch transmission, and the car is fitted with an electronic differential. And of course, the engine and transmission were specially designed by Koenigsegg for this car.
To achieve these performance numbers, the turbos can build up to an insane 26.1 pounds of boost. The rev limiter is set all the way at 8250rpm, which will really let the boost build. Additionally, the motor makes 738 lb-ft of torque from 3000 to 8000 rpm, peaking at 1011 lb-ft, which give the car one hell of a power curve. This allows the One:1 to move from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour) in 2.9 seconds, though Car And Driver did estimate it at 2.5 seconds. This is insane feat, very few stock cars can achieve sub 3 seconds, and it becomes even more incredible when you realize what else this car is capable of.
The One:1 achieved an official 0 – 300 kilometers per hour (186 miles per hour) – 0 time of 17.95 seconds, and Koenigsegg estimates that it could complete a 0 – 400 kilometers per hour (248 miles per hour) – 0 in 30 seconds. For reference, the Bugatti Chiron completes the 0 – 400 – 0 in 41.96 seconds, which should put the impressive performance of the One:1 in perspective.
The only thing more impressive than its acceleration might be its aerodynamics. With this kind of power, the One:1 can and will spin its tires at triple digit speeds, as many reviewers have already stated. However, because of its aerodynamics, this car actually gets noticeably more grip the faster it goes according to reviewers. During a test run, a Car And Driver writer said the acceleration got even faster after 160 kilometres per hour (100 miles per hour), and the grip got even better because of the downforce being produced. At 250 kmph (160 mph) the One:1 aerodynamics produced 1345 lbs of downforce, essentially a small car.
I’ve saved the largest number for last, and you may be wondering what number could be larger than the horsepower, and that my friend is the price. In 2015, the One:1 was going for about $4,000,000 CAD ($2,800,000 USD), and there’s no telling how much more that price has risen since. Both because of inflation, and the fact that there were only 7 of these cars produced back in 2015. Oh, and I’ll leave with this as a final thought, this One:1 achieved all of this back in 2015.
Sources: Koenigsegg, Wikipedia, Car And Driver, CarBuzz, LUXUO, MotorTrend, Carscoops, Diecast Society, Petersen Automotive Museum, LuxuryPulse
