Following the crash earlier this week at the Nürburgring, Koenigsegg has taken the wrecked One:1 back to the factory in Sweden for detailed analysis. And what it found is that the crash was due to a glitch with the Antilock Braking System.
The problem with the front left ABS wheel sensor signal likely triggered a warning light in the instrument display – something which the driver might have noticed under normal circumstances, but apparently missed while focused on the task of manhandling the thousand-horsepower hypercar around the world’s most challenging racetrack.
The car would also have behaved perfectly normally, even under braking, until the ABS was activated. And the first section of the track where ABS was needed was at Fuchsröhre. So when the driver stomped on the brakes at over 100 miles per hour, the front wheels locked up and the car left the track, hitting the fence at the following Adenauer Forst section at nearly 70 mph.
The impact launched the car 70 feet into the air, spinning 180 degrees around and landing on its left rear wheel. Fortunately, the company reports, “the airbags, fuel shut-off and other safety systems all deployed as they were designed to do.” The driver got out and, with the onboard extinguisher, put out a small fire that resulted from contact between the exhaust and carbon-fiber body panels. He was taken to hospital for routine checks but released the same afternoon.
The manufacturer found that, apart from the ABS glitch, everything worked as it was supposed to. It’s going to update the vehicle software so that it warns the driver of any potential ABS fault as part of its existing Active Systems Warning feature along with the adaptive aero and suspension, and limit the vehicle’s speed in such a case to 62 mph.
Because the monocoque itself was undamaged, Koenigsegg says it plans to rebuild the car “in the near future” and eventually return with it to the Nordschleife. It just can’t say when that will be at this early stage.
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