Featured | Koenigsegg Agera

Founded by blue-blooded Swedish entrepreneur, Christian von Koenigsegg 16 years earlier, the manufacturer had taken a deliberately methodical development path towards releasing its first car, the CC8S, in 2002.

It wasn’t until 2006, however, that Koenigsegg found global fame among performance car fans with the 4.7-litre twin supercharged V8-powered CCX – a model which underlined von Koenigsegg’s ambition to build “the world’s most beautiful supercars”; supercars which also happened to be absolute weapons on and off the track.

While the CCX, and a slew of special edition versions which followed, all boasted impressive power output (806hp/601kW), the Agera was designed from the outset to best them all. And it did, offering well-heeled enthusiasts 947hp/706kW of power and over 1000Nm of torque from its uprated 5.0-litre twin-turbo V8, which was paired with a 7-speed dual clutch transmission created for the new car.

The Agera’s performance stats were fittingly impressive too, with a 0-100km/h time of 2.8 seconds, 0-200km/h time of eight seconds, and a manufacturer-claimed 400km/h top speed; its entry ticket into the hypercar ‘400km/h Club’.

While Koenigsegg’s dramatic dihedral synchro-helix doors remained from the CCX, the Agera debuted a wider front track, forged aluminium wheels, a switch from supercharging to turbocharging, a redesigned exhaust system and – inside the fighter jet-like cockpit – a new ‘ghost light’ illumination system which used illumination hidden behind microscopic holes in cabin surfaces to give the appearance of light shining through solid aluminium. 

The Koenigsegg blueprint continued with the Agera – manufacture a ‘base’ car and feed the desire for something just that little bit more exclusive with a series of smaller-run special editions. Thus, the Agera R, Agera S, Agera-based One:1, RS, and Final Edition all followed the original 2010 Agera, production wrapping up in 2018 to make way for the more track-focused Jesko, named after Christian von Koenigsegg’s father.

More than just updated sticker packs though, these limited-edition cars still retained the honed engineering and top-flight aesthetics of the original Agera. The Agera R would even break six world land speed records in 2011, including a 0-300km/h run of 14.53 seconds, and a 0-300-0km/h launch and stop in just 21.19 seconds.

Sharp handling and hyper speed for a chosen few. You can’t look past Koenigsegg.