22nd February 2007, 04:10
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Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Kingdom of Sweden
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Report: Koenigsegg Factory Visit
This was when they produced the CC-R and CC8, not the CCX.
The Koenigsegg factory visit


The Swedish supersportscar-manufacturer Koenigsegg recently broke the world speed record that the McLaren F1 held since years back. Since I met the Koenigsegg people at the Geneva Salon in 2004 and 2005 we agreed on that we should do the airfield meetup as you read on page two of this report. All the employees of Koenigsegg enjoy BMW and Christian von Koenigsegg himself have owned BMW´s. Our visit to Koenigsegg begun with an introduction of their brand by Sales Executive Patrik in their conference room over coffee and a selection of beautiful colour and leather options for the car. After that he started to guide us through the large facilities of the former fighter jet squadron facilities where they served the JAS 39 Gripen fighter. Koengisegg employs 40 highly skilled workers.
Christian and his father on the Geneva Auto Salon 2005 where they broke the news that McLaren F1´s record was beaten and the Koengisegg CC-R managed to do 388 km/h (388,46 km/h to be exact) at Prototipo circular track at Nardo, Southern Italy. Since the track on protipo is banked plans are that they would do the test on Salt Flats in USA or in the desert of Quatar to achieve even higher speeds. The story of Koenigsegg is the story of the goals of the founder of Christian von Koenigsegg. He founded Koenigsegg Automotive AB in 1994 at the age of 22. His goal was to make the best supersportscar there is and he had carefully analyzed the worlds best supercars with theirs unique features as well as drawbacks. In 1995 the first prototype was built and the Koenigsegg CC8S was launched in Paris motorshow year 2000. The more powerful CC-R version was launched at the Geneva Salon in 2004, the same show BMW launched "Concept M5".

The CC-R is incredibly powerful. The V8-engine produces 806 HP and 920 Nm of torque. The CC8-S has 655 HP and 750 Nm of torque. The CC-R has a 300 rpm higher rev. limiter as well.

Too bad this was a Saturday so we could not meet Ann-Christin.

Here we are at the conference room listening to the history of Koenigsegg as well as asking questions about this supercar.

Some of the exteriour and interiour colour options as well as different interiour materials.

Caramel colour sample for the leather interior. Almost the same colour as BMW´s caramel which was introduced with the M5 E39.

M5board member Ashok have found his new colour selction for his new M5... Off to BMW Individual!


The Koenigsegg CC-R in Geneva 2005. Koenigsegg is according to themselves "a no compromise car" with "some degree of usefulness". It is for the customer who only wants to "buy the best". Koenigsegg have produced 24 cars to customers to date since the "real launch" in 2002 of the car that is most similar to the production CC8S. Under 2005 23 units are produced of which 19 goes to consumers. So this means that during next year if orders are filled as in 2005 the Koenigsegg will be produced in more examples than the roadgoing McLaren F1. Interesting since McLaren had a goal of selling 300 cars. Later this year Koenigsegg is planning to complete the US-certification of the CC-R and make it available to American consumers and that means acccess to a very large potential market for Koengisegg.
Production of the McLaren F1 ceased in May 1998, with a total production of 100 cars, made up as follows:
F1
F1 LM
F1 GT 64
5
3 GTR 95
GTR 96
GTR 97 9
9
10
The Koenigsegg cars have full Euro 4 certification. Currently the fastest growing market for Koengisegg is China and Russia with orders going to Shanghai regurarly. Koenigsegg´s filosofy is not to make money on servicing the cars, the customer already have made a big investment in the car. As opposed to McLaren F1 where the first service could cost €42 000.
After the meeting we started our factory tour with Patrik as our excellent guide. We were totally convinced that he had the best job in the world.

The light yellow material is kevlar and the black material is carbon fibre. The panels are fabricated in 21 layers of carbon.

The tools for working with the kevlar and carbon is made out of the same material.


Here you can see the upper part of the front with a opening for the windscreen. Christian von Koenigsegg tested the rigidity of the windscreen frame by standing on it and jumping. Naturally, it did not break.
The weight of the chassi module is only 62 kg thanks to the use of 21 layers of carbon fibre and the torsional stiffness is 28 100 Nm/degree. Compare this to the stiffness of a Porsche 996 Turbo Convertible with 11 600 Nm/degree. Notice that the Koenigsegg also is in part a convertible with a retractable hardtop. For reference the Porsche 911 Turbo has a torsional stiffnes of 27 000 Nm/degree and that is not a convertible. This offers excellent safety to the driver and passenger, as seen in accidents during Formula One. Furthermore, the rigidity is also very important for the handling of the car.
This monocoque construction as well as other parts are manufactured in materials of the highest quality which resulted in that at the crashtesting of the CC8S in Volvo's facilities it came out as the safest car they ever tested. Also thanks to that it is so light it has less mass which leads to a lower kinetic energy than of a heavier car, which results in a safetyfactor in itself.
It takes three months to produce a Koengisegg and 60% of the consumers choose to special order their cars with for example very advanced stereo systems, Park Distance Control, owners name stitched into the back-rest of the car etc.

The unique doors. Traditional doors would have made the Koenigsegg too wide fior use everyday. Just 10 mm under two meters in width (1990 mm) makes the cars too wide to have regular doors for example when parking. More classic supersportscar doors like the Lamborhgini Murciolago and Countach would make the door mechanism sit too high on the car.

The air ventilation outlets in the middle-console. Norice that they are in carbon with Caramel leather along with black stitching.

Koenigsegg approved safety glass even for the small rear window.

The speed-record breaking CC-R we took out on the airfield. It sounds very similar to an offshore racing-boat, very raw and nice. The blue car to the right is the first full scale prototype. The CCR engine delivers 806 Hp at 7000 rpm and 920 (550 ft-lb) Nm of torque at 5,400 rpm. It is a state-of-the-art Quad Cam semi-stressed V8 construction with a 4.7 litre displacement and 32 valves. The CCR is boosted to its extreme power output by a unique Bi-compressor Supercharging system, which employs twin centrifugal compressors to enable a 1.4 bar maximum boost pressure at 5000 RPM.
The bi-compressor centrifugal supercharging system features twin parallel mounted Rotrex compressors, which cooperate in generating the 1.4 bar boost pressure needed to create the colossal 806 Hp output. The innovative Danish Rotrex compressor represents the next generation of centrifugal superchargers; they exhibit a higher energy-efficiency level than any other, they are operational at higher RPM levels and also feature a new and completely silent ball bearing planetary drive system.

This is cast from one block of lightweight aerospace aluminum.

The world´s fastest production car meets up with the world´s most competent sports saloons.

Heading towards the airfield. I can see why Peltor is a sponsor on the Koengisegg. They make hearing protection and the CC-R was loud!

However the Koenigsegg Sales Managers first comment after trying out the M5 on their private airfield was: "xxcking incredible". So we were very impressed with Koenigsegg and Koenigsegg was very impressed with the new M5. We spent at least four hours on the airfield together with nice cars. And knowing you had to go to another country (Denmark) and then back 700 km and after that to another airfield just made you smile more when you knew you had the M5 as a companion.
Order some of the the racingvideos below. $15 excl. shipping worldwide. See trailer for the video-CD here. Several races filmed from inside and outside some of the cars. The video is in stock and will be shipped within 2 days from ordering online. Three video trailer on this link, go here. Trailers are: from the second airfield with short clips from the exotics, a full race versus the E55 AMG and when the M5 drives on a highway.
Click here to go to m5board.com online ordering of media with worldwide delivery from USA. Payments via credit card. For an example of a picture on this page and one that is in highresolution, see the image below. The source image for that picture is this image. The images are 3072 pixel wide and 2304 pixel high (3072x2304). So, this is the high-res and this is the low-res.
So, this was our weekend with the new M5! Two airfields, 10 full tanks of fuel, 2600 km, 0,6 liters of oil and alot of fun!
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Last edited by Gustav; 22nd February 2007 at 04:12.
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