THE 1,600 HP KOENIGSEGG JESKO ABSOLUT SETS ANOTHER MIND-BLOWING SPEED RECORD!

Koenigsegg may be a small, independent concern with small production runs on its cars, but that’s ok when you don’t produce sportscars or supercars and you specialise in hypercars.  that’s run by a man who is clearly a genius. Founder Christian von Koenigsegg has a brilliant mind and is responsible for many amazing technical innovations on his cars. They’re always amazing-looking things with astounding performance. There’s been a couple spotted in SA recently, but years back I actually managed to get in one and feel the stupendous performance. I did manage to get a few pics of it on display on a showroom floor first, but sadly those original files are long gone. That was around 2007 or 2008 and it belonged to well-known local businessman Lolly Jackson. Owning a Koenigsegg in SA all those years ago was a serious flex, but since Lolly’s death, it was found that the car wasn’t brought into the country properly and the story goes that the car was confiscated and crushed. I remember the car being mad fast, awkward to get in and out of and very, very cool to look at. I spotted it arrive at Kyalami Racetrack during some or other event that was on and I wanted to take the chance to shoot some proper pics of the Lava Orange beauty. It wasn’t possible because the Koenigsegg CCX was permanently surrounded by onlookers, and Lolly wasn’t the kind of chap who would move the car away from being the centre of attention. Being one of a few people in SA who got up close and personal with a Koenigsegg, it’s had a weird effect on me in that I have to keep tabs on everything Koenigsegg. I’m on the company mailing list and I subscribe to all their social media channels, and I have for years. Back to the amazing Koenigsegg, but not that old CCX, this is all about the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, the company’s current halo car. The JA uses a twin-turbocharged 5.0-litre V8 powerplant capable of producing 947 hp, but changes to the setup have seen the power available rise to 1281 hp on pump fuel. When the motor gets fed a clean supply of E85 biofuel, that power figure rises to an almost unbelievable 1600 hp.  

A while back Mr von Koenigsegg said: "The name Absolut comes from the fact that this is the absolute fastest Koenigsegg we will ever make,” which is a big statement considering just how fast previous cars from the automaker have been. There are loads of ways to test the performance of cars like this and they all involve speed, timing and distance. How fast can a car go over a predetermined distance? How quick can a car go over a predetermined distance? How fast can a car go on a long enough stretch of road? And then there’s the way Koenigsegg does these things. These chaps like to take a car up to a high speed but they also like to see how fast it can stop from that high speed - and they do it all in one test. Koenigsegg already owns the world record for doing a test like this faster than anyone else can do it, and they just broke it again. The record was held by the Koenigsegg Regera, set in 2023 when the car ran from a standstill to 400 km/h and back to a standstill again in a mere 28.81 seconds. That’s stupid fast. But as the big boss said, the Jesko Absolut was to be the fastest Koenigsegg ever and so it had to beat the Regera. Koenigsegg test driver, Markus Lundh strapped into a showroom version of the Jesko Absolute running on E85 fuel and standard Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 R tyres - the only mods were the addition of a roll cage and One:1 driver’s seat. In a single run from zero to 412 km/h and back to zero, four new world records for a fully homologated production car were set:

Take a look at the YouTube video from a runway in Örebro, Sweden, that shows the Koenigsegg crew snatching the 0-400-0 speed record with the Jesko Absolut from the Regera. That's a win and a loss in one go: KOENIGSEGG Jesko Absolut | 0-400-0 km/h - NEW WORLD RECORD | Koenigsegg

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