A Curious Owner Was Behind The Koenigsegg Agera RS Top Speed Record

Although one would be justified for believing it was Koenigsegg that aimed to set a top speed record with the Agera RS. Instead, it all started due to one of its customers.

While attending the ongoing New York Auto Show, Canada’s Driving interviewed Christian von Koenigsegg and were told that it was the owner of the record-setting Agera RS that initiated the bold speed attempt.

“We were just about finished building his car, and he said ‘I want to see how fast this goes.’ Well, we don’t have a track long enough to do that; I told him any test track is too short, you’d have to shut down a whole road. And he managed to do that.

“So when we heard he had achieved that, we thought we’d better help out, because it’s uncharted territory, and it’s dangerous. We’ve never even driven that fast, so we wanted to be part of it, analyze it, and make sure it was done as safely as possible and that we got as much data out of it as possible,” von Koenigsegg revealed.

Multiple records were achieved

Despite venturing into the unknown, the Agera RS performed flawlessly. During multiple runs along the closed Nevada highway, it become the world’s fastest production vehicle with a 447.19 km/h (277.87 mph) average, set a 0-400km/h-0 (248.5 mph) record of 33.29 seconds, performed the fastest flying kilometer on a public road at 445.63 km/h (276.9 mph) and the fastest flying mile on a public road of 444.76 km/h (276.36 mph). Not bad for Koenigsegg’s first serious top speed attempt.

It wasn’t just these records that made the whole test worth it. According to von Koenigsegg, valuable data was also collected.

“We got a lot of data. For example, now every Agera RS comes with an aerodynamic setup in the software for the ride height, for the wing, for the front flaps, for the shock absorbers, that is optimal for that high speed, because we could never get to that speed. And we developed that while we were there. And while we have done testing of the wheels and tires earlier, we now know that at this high speed they’re fine,” he said.