Koenigsegg Automotive

After months of waiting, I finally was give the opportunity to visit Koenigsegg Automotive, producer of (arguably) the fastest production car currently in existence, the Agera R.

The Agera R has a theoretical top speed of 440km/h. This top speed remain theoretical as there currently isn't a race track in the world with a straight long enough to get the car up to it's top speed (it needs approx. 10-12km). I suggested to Christian Koenigsegg that they bring the car down to Australia where we have a single flat straight piece of road that's 146km long, stretching across the bottom of WA.

Funnily enough, the only racing strait that comes close to what they need is the 9km test track owned by Koenigsegg's biggest rival Volkswagen who produce the current record-holder the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport (top speed 431km/h). Naturally Volkswagen doesn't want the Agera R to take their record.

(Koenigsegg's 2012 Agera test model parked outside the factory)

 (Magnus and the Agera)

(Christian Von Koenigsegg overseeing the latest car to come off the factory floor)

I discovered that it takes a minimum of 20 weeks for a Koenigsegg car to be assembled and painted. This time increases depending on the custom specifications of the buyer. Koenigsegg allows it's customers almost unlimited control over the appearance of the car as well as the ability to storage space and custom leather. One customisation outlined to us was that if a customer wishes to have a fully visible carbon finish on their car it would require the carbon chassis and all other visible carbon parts to be specially made so that all seams and joins line up with no overlap, prior to the assembly of the car. This extra attention to detail justifiably means that there is a significant increase in the cars price. Otherwise all colour schemes are under the same price of over $1.5 million AUD.

 (Robert Serwanski - Koenigseggs one and only test driver and holder of all current Agera R records; 0-100km/h 2.9s, 0-200km/h 7.5s, 0-300km/h 14.53s, 300-0km/h 6.6s... In other words, the luckiest man alive)

 (Ms. Koenigsegg who gave us the tour)