You’d think Koenigsegg wouldn’t have much left to prove. The Agera RS is still, as official record books are concerned, the fastest production car in the world. The Regera, meanwhile, set a record of its own last year, becoming the quickest car in the world to accelerate from a standstill to 400kph (248.5mph), and then haul itself back to a halt.
That happened in a mightily impressive 28.8 seconds, but clearly Christian Von Koenigsegg and his band of fellow speed-hungry Swedes weren’t satisfied with that. They’ve just returned to the same airfield in Örebro, Sweden, and shaved almost a second off that record.
The car that achieved this feat was the Jesko Absolut, the ultra low-drag, top-speed-oriented version of the firm’s current flagship hypercar. It uses a 5.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 that kicks out 1280bhp. Well, if it’s running on the stuff you can get at most petrol stations, that is.
Fill it with E85 biofuel, as Koenigsegg did for this record run, and that figure goes up to 1600bhp. With its aero optimised for straight-line speed, the Jesko Absolut also boasts a drag coefficient of just 0.278, which is… slightly higher than a Vauxhall Calibra. Still, the Calibra didn’t have 1600bhp. As far as we know.
Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut – rear
Running on its standard-fit Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tyres, the only changes from the Absolut that you can go and buy (except you can’t, because they’re all sold out) were a roll cage and a seat from the old One:1 hypercar, the latter apparently the record driver’s preference.
With all this at his disposal, he was able to punch the Jesko Absolut off the line, take it up to 400kph, and then absolutely hammer the anchors, in the span of 27.83 seconds. In not particularly surprising news, the same run also broke the standing 0-400kph record, something the Absolut managed in 18.82 seconds.
Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut – side
This likely isn’t the last record attempt we’ll hear of from Koenigsegg this year – we’re still waiting to see if and when it finds a suitable location for its attempt to snatch back the outright production car speed record from… itself.
