When we petrolheads get bored, we tend to go for a drive. For the Koenigsegg team, they decide to break their own 0-400-0 km/h record, again. Aaron Stokes wonders what this will lead to.
Koenigsegg have a habit of breaking records, and the latest one that they have claimed is from themselves. In 2023, they used a Regera to complete a 0-400-0 km/h run in 28.81 seconds. Any ordinary brand would be satisfied, but Koenigsegg felt like they could improve their time, and they have.
Using the mightily impressive Jesko Absolut (not to be confused with a certain alcoholic spirit), they have somehow made the already rapid time look slow. The new record now stands at just 27.83 seconds and unlike last year’s Regera run, saw no hybrid influence whatsoever.
The powerplant used in the Absolut is Koenigsegg’s signature dish in the form of a 5-litre twin-turbocharged V8. The amount of power you get depends on what fuel you put in: using pump petrol, it’ll produce 1280 bhp, but if using E85 biofuel, you can enjoy a small power bump to 1,578 bhp. For the record run, they used E85 to get the full power available.
It wouldn’t be a Koenigsegg record run if they didn’t also shatter yardsticks that were not quite the original goal. During the same trip down the Ängelholm runway, the Jesko Absolut also broke the 0-400 km/h, 0-250 mph and 0-250-0 mph records, managing these in 18.82 seconds, 19.2 seconds and 28.27 seconds respectively.
Minimal changes were made to the car prior to its meeting with the stopwatch, with just a roll cage to protect the driver and a seat from an Agera One:1, owing to the test driver Markus Lundh’s personal preference. Outside of this, the car was the same as it would be when delivered to customers, running on Michelin Cup 2 R tyres and E85 fuel. Now that you’ve read about how the Jesko Absolut performed, why not watch it too?
Most impressive to me is the braking performance of the car; from the moment Markus hit the brakes to complete the return to 0, the Jesko remained arrow straight, showing that Koenigsegg engineer their cars to be stable whether heading to or from incredibly high speeds. To keep the low-drag Jesko Absolut stable at these speeds and forces is a feat of engineering. Surely it would be easier to design the Jesko Absolut to take off rather than stay on the tarmac?
It is clear that there is more outright speed to be recorded from the Jesko Absolut. Its low-drag bodywork is designed with over 300 mph in mind, and Christian von Koenigsegg confirmed that preparations are underway to let the car stretch its legs to the max. The tyres are holding things up, with Koenigsegg waiting for Michelin to verify that their rubber is safe to use at almost twice the takeoff speed of an Airbus A320.
Having re-broken their own 0-400-0 record, Koenigsegg are hell bent on breaking another of their claims: the fastest production car in the world, and by the looks of it, the Jesko Absolut will pass the 278 mph set by the Koenigsegg’s own Agera RS in record time. The question is, will they be competing against themselves, or will Hennessey win the race to 300 mph?
