Less than a month ago, Bugatti announced that, with Juan Pablo Montoya at the wheel, the Chiron managed to record a run from zero to 249 mph to zero (zero to 400 km/h to zero) in 41.96 seconds. Somewhere in Sweden, Christian von Koenigsegg thought his car could do better. And it has.
Interestingly, Koenigsegg is planning to do a record run with the Regera, its equally sold out electrified hypercar. However, it used a brand-new Agera RS this time, simply because its owner was very keen to verify the car’s performance. Following its completion, the car went through the usual 186-mph testing at Koenigsegg’s airfield, only to head immediately for Vandel, a former base for the Danish Army Air Service that was closed for military purposes in 2003 and became the largest solar farm in Scandinavia.
Destined for America, this Agera RS features Koenigsegg’s 1MW engine upgrade providing 1360 horsepower and 1011 lb-ft of torque, as well as the optional removable roll cage.
Originally, the test was planned to run between September 30 and October 2 at the Papenburg test facility in Germany, but the weather forecast forced Koenigesegg to engage plan B. As there was a window of good weather in southern Scandinavia on Sunday, October 1, the team rushed to Vandel with a car that still had its protective industrial tape over various surfaces to protect it from debris.
And there was plenty of debris. After being closed for 14 years, Vandel’s 1.7-mile runway was in a condition that forced Koenigsegg factory driver Niklas Lilja to watch out for bumps and small potholes as he gradually ran the car up to 250 mph. Since the Agera RS hadn’t been tested at that speed before, Koenigsegg made a small change to the rear-wing angle to reduce drag. This setting is now standard on all cars.
With the crosswinds dying away and both car and driver ready for the big run, the team went for it. Due to the low grip level on the mostly concrete surface, Koenigsegg’s data shows the traction control was engaging on the first three gears, with the highest-speed instance logged at 113 mph during third and fourth.
With that adding to the challenge, Lilja managed to record a run from zero to 248 mph and back to zero in 36.44 seconds, beating Bugatti’s record by 5.52 seconds.
The Agera RS took 26.88 seconds to reach 248 mph over a distance of 1.21 miles. Deceleration to zero took 9.56 seconds over 1584 feet, thanks to the Agera RS’s carbon-ceramic discs and bespoke calipers as well as Michelin’s sticky rubber.
Amazingly, the car went even faster during the run, reaching 250 mph and coming back to a halt in 37.28 seconds over a distance of 1.57 miles. Talk about cutting it close on a 1.7-mile runway!
This story originally appeared on Road & Track.
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