Koenigsegg Agera R First Drive - Motor Trend
As we pass yet another policeman hiding in the bushes, the cab driver cheerfully tells us a 6-mph over-the-limit indiscretion here will cost the thick end of $700. What we're planning would surely send us to jail and make the news. With just one major road and apparently a stakeout every five minutes, this part of Norway might not be the best place to drive one of the fastest cars in the world.
But here we are in scenic, fjord-filled Fredrikstad, just an hour south of Oslo, to drive the Koenigsegg Agera R. This machine is perhaps the only real rival to the Bugatti Veyron and Pagani Huayra. It's a car that belongs at the top rung of the supercar world. It is also made for breaking 200 mph, which could put us in jail for a very long time. It costs $3 million, is the only one of its kind, and it's raining. No pressure, then...
As I stand in the shipyard and hear the 5.0-liter twin turbo explode into life and settle into an aggressive idle inside the adjacent building, the pressure starts to build. Then the Agera rolls into view, and I feel sweat on my palms.
Visually it's a big, buff boxer of a car, with a smooth, curvaceous front end, powerful haunches, and, when it's in place, a low-slung double-bubble roof that gives the car a real stealth-fighter look. Christian von Koenigsegg envisioned a dolphin when he first sketched the car that slowly evolved into the Agera R over the past decade, but there's more than a touch of nose-heavy bull shark about it from the side.
The ski box on the roof is borderline ridiculous, simply a marketing tie-in and a visual representation that the car will work in the snow since Koenigsegg developed a winter tire with Michelin. But it looks stupid as we park up in the old town -- surely nobody will order an Agera R like this. Besides, the standard roof slots underneath that clamshell front end for open-top driving if you have a wrench and two minutes, which is a seriously neat trick.
In fact, the car is full of neat touches, from the rear LED lights that contain the indicators to the dihedral synchro helix door that twirls effortlessly up and out in one fluid motion and has probably made more than one sale on its own.
Inside, too, it's another world. The center console looks like a modern interpretation of an old-school telephone dial that comes to life. There are LCD displays in the console and instrument panel, which has been totally replaced with a high-tech digital display thanks to near-invisible inlaid carbon nano tubes that light up on command. As I cruise over to the road we'll use for the main testing (a place the police are unlikely to visit), I'm amazed by the tactile beauty of the Agera R. It's gentle, feels perfect, and sounds better than a Veyron. Okay, so it rattles over the cobbled streets and isn't quite as comfy, but this is a good start.
But then it's time for the real test of pure acceleration. It takes a moment to summon the courage to plant 1150 hp and 885 lb-ft of pure muscle. When I finally do, the Agera R -- Swedish word for the verb 'to act' -- just goes mad.
All that power ploughs through the rear wheels and in the dry will send the Agera scorching to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds, way faster than the Zonda. In 7.5 seconds, 124 mph is conquered, and it will go from 0-124-0 mph in just 12.7 seconds. Top speed will breach 260 mph, according to Koenigsegg.
But it's not just the staggering numbers. It's the sheer violence of the turbo-powered delivery that sets Agera R apart.
It's an absolutely docile creature until the revs hit 3500 rpm, and then it bolts forward with a jolt. Suddenly I'm at the next bend and the 7250 rpm redline with a kilometer of strange road behind me. I don't even have time to compute the scrabbling rear wheels that seem to fix everything themselves. I know there's wheelspin, and I worry about a massive accident, but then the Michelin Pilot Super Sports find traction and the car explodes down the road again without the slightest correction on my part.
Then on liftoff, as I prepare to hit the ceramic brakes and flick down two gears on the seven-speed dual clutch paddle-shift transmission from Cima, the whole car shimmies as the wastegates open and send a convulsion through the drivetrain.
This road winds through the Norwegian fjord, with a watery grave awaiting a serious mistake on either side, and the first few runs are a thoroughly unnerving experience.
But this is all part of the character of the car - the pent-up energy shows itself at the surface, involves the driver, and yet somehow doesn't need any help fixing the problems. It even feels heavy. I'm using shoulder muscles to force the car into bends, rather than fingertips, but that's a legacy of the epic grip rather than anything intrinsically wrong.
The Agera R can produce lateral cornering forces of 1.6 g, thanks to grip from the Michelin Pilot Super Sports and a setup focused on cornering speed. The Veyron Super Sport touches 1.45 g. That means, theoretically, that the Agera will destroy almost anything on track if the driver is good enough. But without four-wheel drive to help if things go wrong, the Agera R takes serious skill to keep on the road, although it does come with its own track-focused tricks.
Koenigsegg deserves more credit than he's received for the innovations on this car. The drivetrain is the lightest and most compact in this class, starting out as a 5.0-liter crate Ford before being rebuilt from the ground up in Sweden. The bodywork is crafted to create 661 pounds of downforce at 155 mph and a flat underbody with a venturi tunnels helps suck it to the ground. The whole car weighs just 3163 pounds, including fluids.
Then there's the rear suspension, which includes three dampers to prevent squat as well as control the standard impacts on the wheel. The engine is worked into the build as a semi-stressed member to prevent its weight from working against the car in corners. Even the wheels are designed to create a vortex of air and pull heat from the brake disc. This is a holistic approach that has helped to create one of the finest cars in the world, and a genuine alternative to a Bugatti or Pagani.
And even here, in speed-unfriendly Norway, I simply cannot resist flirting with bankruptcy and jail to let rip through the fjords in what might be the greatest supercar on the road right now. One thing's for sure: That new Pagani had better be very, very good.
