The Koenigsegg Jesko is one of the fastest cars on the planet, setting record after record. But the hypercar maker wants more speed records—and may not stop till it has all of them.
On its mission to do just that, Koenigsegg announced on Tuesday that it had set new benchmarks for the quarter-mile and the standing half-mile with a Jesko Absolut.
In the standing half-mile, the Jesko Absolut topped out at 223.6 mph and completed the feat in 13.27 seconds at Koenigsegg’s test track in Sweden, clips of which can be seen in the brand’s post on Instagram. That time is a record for a production car. The Jesko Absolut also completed a quarter-mile in 8.88 seconds, which is the fastest quarter-mile by a gas car in history, besting cars like the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, but not EVs like the Pininfarina Battista and the Rimac Nevera. The Jesko is powered by a 5.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine that makes a claimed 1,600 hp.
The fastest standing half-mile ever is 397.9 kilometers per hour, or 247.2 mph, according to Guinness, but that was set by a “heavily modified Lamborghini Huracán.” For production cars, Hennessey has previously claimed that its Venom F5 got to 219 mph. The quarter-mile gas car record has been held by a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 with cars like the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport hot on its heels.
Koenigsegg thinks the Jesko Absolut can reach 330 mph, which would be a top speed record, but hasn’t yet tested that claim, as it’s difficult to find the proper proving ground to test the figure. The Jesko Absolut has fins in the rear instead of a wing like the normal Jesko to decrease downforce and increase stability. Other nips and tucks on the front and side of the car to increase high-speed stability made clear that the Jesko Absolut is about one thing, which is setting speed and acceleration records.
Koenigsegg is almost alone in this pursuit of absolute speed, with only Bugatti a serious competitor, along with, to a lesser extent, Rimac, which now owns Bugatti. This is in part because pure speed is a limited metric by which to judge automotive excellence and a limited selling point. It is also exponentially harder to go ever faster. It is quite easy to make a car that goes 100 mph, somewhat challenging to make a car that goes 200 mph, and quite difficult to make a car that goes 300 mph or more. Koenigsegg has assumed the mantle of trying and become world famous as a result, perhaps the last of the gas-powered speed demons.
Credit: robbreport.com
