A year ago Koenigsegg, the Swedish maker of hyper exotic supercars, unveiled the Agera R at the 2011 Geneva Auto Show. It was a modified version of the base Agera that upped the engine’s output from 910 bhp to 1,115 bhp and added $214,000, bringing the total cost to around $1 million. At the time, the company claimed the Agera R would be faster than a Bugatti Veyron.
It set out to prove this last September when a standard Koenigsegg Agera R, driven by Robert Serwanski, took several new production car world records at the Koenigsegg proving ground in Ängelholm, Sweden. According to Koenigsegg, all data was measured and collected by a third party with the officially accepted Racelogic VBox performance recorder.
The performance numbers recorded were:
- 0-300 km/h = 14.53 sec
- 0-200 mph = 17.68 sec
- 300-0 km/h = 6.66 sec
- 200-0 mph = 7.28 sec
- 0-300-0 km/h = 21.19 sec
- 0-200-0 mph = 24.96 sec
A few months later, after submission to the Guinness Book of World Records, it was granted the title for ‘The fastest time for a two-seater production car to travel from 0-300-0 km/h’, which it achieved in just 21.19 seconds.
Part of the secret to the Agera R’s high performance is the utilization of Umeco’s lightweight carbon fiber prepregs for the structure and bodywork. In case you’re wondering, a prepreg “consists of a reinforcement material pre-impregnated with a polymer or resin matrix in a controlled ratio”.
And if you’ve not heard of Umeco, it is a British company that supplies carbon-fiber components to companies around the world. If you fly on the double-decker Airbus A 380 or the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, they both use Umeco composites. Rolls-Royce, the jet-engine maker not the motor car company, is Umeco’s biggest customer. Umeco was originally founded in 1917 as the University Motor and Engineering Company, when it distributed cars in southern England.
Next week Koenigsegg will unveil the 2013 Agera R in Geneva, but there is no word on the company website as to what we can expect. Presumably it will be even faster and more expensive!
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