Koenigsegg One:1
"We don't really care about the competition, because we are our own competition." -CVK
***The video looks better on mobile as I recorded it in 9:16.***
Ah yes, the very first "megacar". As a kid, I literally chose the Koenigsegg CCX as my first ever dream car. That was until the Agera came out, which is essentially a perfected CCX. I did a cinematic edit on this car approximately a year ago, and I thought it would be perfect to feature it here again, as I still sometimes rewatch it and really ask myself if I was the one who made such a thing. But then again, with the way this thing looks, you could probably use a Dacia Sandero rearview parking camera and still have gorgeous content. After all, people take photos of the Mona Lisa on their iPhone 6's don't they?
The first way we are going to dive into sheer admiration of this machine is in its weight. When you say megacar, that's not just some 8 year old's cool vocabulary. The reason this is a MEGAcar (the first ever), is because it produces 1 MegaWatt of power, approximately 1340hp. If you thought 1340hp wasn't enough to make your eyes water, well, you should know that the reason this car is called the One:1 is because of its weight to power ratio, which, in the past was classified as "impossible".
I used to think the CCX was the pinnacle. And, in many ways, the CCX is quintessentially an Agera. But when the actual Agera came out, let alone the One:1, it has remained in the top spot on my dream car list. Nevertheless, what I'm about to tell you, I only recently learned when looking into the process of making this jet.
Let's do some bean counting to see where all the weight goes, shall we? Remember, this car weighs ~1360kg. Firstly, the heart, weighing in at a modest 197kg. Keep in mind that this is a 5.0L twin-turbo V8 producing 1360hp. Next, the CHASSIS. Take a guess. Then divide it by six. The whole chassis weighs...72 kilograms. No, it's not a typo. Let me see here... Oh yeah, the transmission that handles 1000+Nm of torque weighs ~80kg, 50% tank of fuel is 27kg, exhaust is barely 10kg.. Hmm, oh yes, the damn set of four wheels weighs a total of 24kg. That makes for ~400kg. Where does the other 1000kg go into? Well, it has fully functional interior worthy of comfortable road tripping, carbon ceramic discs with 6-piston calipers, and treated carbon fiber body panels.
If my math doesn't let me down, and I'd like to think it hasn't, stripping the car down to just the chassis, engine, and wheels, it'd weigh around 293kg. Imagine 1360hp pushing something with similar weight class to sports bikes..
This thing's stability is so unbelievable, that I still remember a clip to this very day of the One:1 going from 0-300kph-0, with the driver nearly HANDS FREE. Some argue that "he put his finger on the wheel right there look!", but they do not understand that that's due to imperfections/bumps in the track. The driver accelerated to 300, braked back to zero, with barely any finger input. In fact, this is more impressive because, with such powerful cars, they suffer from something called "torque steer", where the massive power delivered to the rear wheels (yes it's RWD) makes the car dart left or right. However, a combination of the extremely stiff treated carbon chassis and a very precise electronic differential delivers the power as if it were a guided missile. In many ways, it is.
Say what you want, but I can safely assume if you'd let go of a wheel in any car at say 80kph and brake back to zero, I doubt the car would stay in a straight line, let alone accelerate hands free.
As this is *THE* Koenigsegg to own, in my opinion, I think it is suitable to go over the origin story of the infamous Ghost Squadron emblem. See, there was this Air Force base in Ängelholm which was home to the well-known "Ghost Squadron", which used to fly out at dusk and regularly come back at very late times at night. In fact, residents would only hear the planes, never see them.
After they encountered a massive fire in 2002, Koenigsegg moved into the Ghost Squadron's old hangar/base. To honour their legacy, the squadron allowed Koenigsegg to use their Ghost emblem on their vehicles, symbolizing that "the show must go on".
What I think happened is that Christian von Koenigsegg thought he was now tasked with creating planes, and thus came up with the CCX and the Agera, along with their descendants to this very day. Has he not received the memo yet that these things are supposed to be ground vehicles not rockets? Or maybe it just is THAT serious. Whatever is going on inside CVK's head, I pray it keeps giving us these absolutely wicked weapons for time and time to come.
Car Cassette:
- Killer - Mareux
- Opr - Gesaffelstein
- cigarette burns - moonvampire
"It's only mechanics. It's only physics. We're not dealing with magic—we're just rewriting the truth of what a car is allowed to be." -CVK