Swedish engineer and entrepreneur Christian von Koenigsegg believes his “Jesko Absolut” supercar is set to be the fastest car in the world. Clocking in at 311 mph on computer simulations, the vehicle will likely beat Bugatti’s Chiron Super Sport, the current holder of the world record at 304 mph, when it is put to the test in the near future.
“We punched those numbers into the very advanced system of the chassis dyno. And it calculates the rolling resistance of the tyre, the drag of the car, it puts correct load on the car at 500 kmh [310.7 mph] if we reach there,” Koenigsegg told Top Gear magazine. “And we managed to pass 500 kmh in ninth gear before hitting the rev limiter and still having some space in the chassis dyno. It doesn’t tell you how stable the car is, but the resistance is there.”
Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut achieves 0-400-0 km/h in 27.83 sec, setting a world record 🌍 pic.twitter.com/9yEmOUg5jl
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“[Koenigsegg Inc. has] the airfield here. We have our supercomputer simulators. We’ve been to a German wind tunnel with the Jesko Attack and Absolut, so we know exactly how the aero works on the car,” he added.
The Jesko Absolut has “a flat-plane-crank 5.1-litre V8, a nine-speed ‘Light Speed Transmission’, much supercharging and the scary end of 1,578bhp, 1,106lb ft of torque and a 8,500rpm redline,” according to Top Gear, which adds that it revs “like a superbike.”
It possesses a carbon-fibre body which makes it simultaneously durable and light.
“The other interesting thing about that is in our chassis dyno we have fans to cool the intercoolers and the radiator in front and so on, but they do not have the flow speed of 500 kmh [310.7 mph] so cooling is worse, you get hotter intake temperatures from the turbos and things like that,” he continued. “Even with that, we managed to go beyond 500 kmh with the full load case.”
Now, the Swedish company just needs to perfect the car’s tires and find the perfect tarmac strip to debut its stunts.
“We have not been able to find something that feels comfortably long enough that’s not a road,” he said. “Two reasons. We prefer not to floor it from standstill, because that would build in a lot of stress and heat.”
“And then when you hit your maximum top speed, preferably you don’t want to slam your brakes because you’re close to the end of your runway or something, you want to lift off, ease down a little bit.”
The Bugatti Chiron Super Sport hit 304 mph in 2019, but will be discontinued until further notice, with its last line being released in May. Earlier this month, the Jesko Absolut accelerated from 0 to 400 kmh [248.5 miles] and back down to 0 in just 27.83 seconds.
“Inspired by fighter jets,” the official webpage of the car reads. “Over 3,000 hours invested in fluid dynamics (OFD).”
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics and business for VT and a regular guest on The Unusual Suspects. Follow Shane’s work here.
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