Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut aiming to be world’s fastest car

The race to be the fastest car has been going on forever. In the modern age, the Bugatti Veyron ignited another chapter of this fight in which brands like SSC, Hennessey and Koenigsegg also threw their hats in the ring. But, here is Koenigsegg again, hoping to seal the deal with the fastest car Koenigsegg will ever make. Quite a tall order for the new boy which is christened Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut.

If you remember last year’s Geneva Motor Show, Koenigsegg had proudly shown off Jesko, a 1600 hp flamboyant hypercar named after the father of Christian Von Koenigsegg, founder of the company. The Absolut variant of the Jesko was hinted at during the show but it took them almost a year to bring it to the table.

Most of the year taken to develop the Jesko Absolut has been routed to make it even more aerodynamic than the standard Jesko. The drag coefficient of the Jesko Absolut has been brought down to just 0.278. It took them more than 3000 hours to hone the aerodynamics to this level.

The power for the Jesko Absolut comes from the same twin-turbo 5.0-litre V8 from the standard Jesko making the same 1280 hp when it runs on regular petrol. Switch to E85 and the output jumps to 1600 hp and 1500 Nm of torque. A nine-speed transmission is utilised to deliver insanely quick gear changes. The whole car weighs only 1,320 kg (dry) courtesy of the carbon fibre monocoque. Koenigsegg claims that despite the aggression in its air, the Jesko Absolut’s suspension is tuned in a way that this fully-fledged hypercar is easy to live with daily.

Though the “fastest Koenigsegg ever” claim is proudly flaunted, Koenigsegg has not revealed any top speed numbers. Instead, they claim that the Jesko Absolut will be faster than any production car ever built. This should make it faster than the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ which hit 490 kph last year. Will the Jesko Absolut be the first production car to hit 500 kph? Let’s wait and watch.