I typed this out, but its a freaking cool article. I will try to get some pics to add on.
EVO Magazine said:This is it then, our shot in the Koenigsegg CCR. Having sat tight all day yesterday, staring meekly out of the window, we retreated to our hotel hoping for brighter skies the next morning. Unfortunately we're greeted with more of the same.
It's bitterly disappoint, for not only do we have unlimited access to the CCR, but we also have he use of Koenigsegg's test track, which has over a mile of decommissioned ex-military runway. While too short to get anywhere near the CCR's projected 250mph maximum, it's long enough to measure acceleration at seriously high speeds and perhaps challenge the McLaren F1's previously untouchable stats. Or at least it would be if only the rain would abate.
Sensing our frustration, Christian von Koenigsegg suggests that we accompany him in the CCR on the roads around Ängelholm. It's not every day you get the chance to share a car of this calibre with the man who created it (imagine hitching a ride with Enzo Ferrari back in the 1950s), besides which it's the perfect opportunity to be brought up to speed with the CCR's technical details.
There's something particularly appropriate about seeing the Koenigsegg rumble out of a hangar formerly used to house the Swedish Airforce's elite fighter squadron, for it too has a weapon-like sense of purpose and potency. It's for that reason the CCR, and all the future 'extreme specification' Koenigseggs, will wear the squadron's ghost emblem. It's a nice touch and a cool piece of supercar folklore-in-the-making.
This striking yellow car, complete with an interior upholstered in retina-assaulting Swedish national colours, is the new company demonstrator. It's also a development car, which explains why it's fitted with a prototype six-speed sequential gearbox supplied for evaluation by Italian transmission specialists Cima. It also has a stronger, sintered clutch in preparation for Jeremy Clarkson's test of the car in a few weeks' time, and a new steering rack with increased assistance.
As CK threads the CCR out of the compound and out onto the fast, open rural roads, it all feels remarkable civilized, despite the uncompromising transmission and clutch. Supercar set-up genius Loris Bicocchi has been working hard on the CCR in between his regular stints at Bugatti developing the Veyron ( he also developed the chassis on the Pagani Zonda), and his familiar lightness of tough is evident in the CCR's miraculous suppleness and compliance.
Like the CC8S, the CCR is an odd mix of sophisticated, cultured damping and brutal, rough-edged intensity. Much of this is tanks to the engine, which snorts and bristles and gnashes through the bulkhead with animal aggression. My memories of the CC8S aren't exactly of a big softy, but there's a sharper edge to the CCR, an immediacy and vehemence that distinguishes it from not only the CC8 but any other supercar.
The road, though drying in the strong wind, is still damn in patches. In a 911 turbo, Gallardo or Muriélago you probably wouldn't flinch at using full throttle in the lower gears, but the CCR is a much, much fiercer creature, more T Rex than tiger. That much is clear from CK's focused expression, steely eyes scanning the road for the driest stretch, right floor minutely compression the throttle in the same way a sniper takes up the slack in a hair-trigger.
We both spot the opportunity simultaneously, and in the same split-second that Christian cracks opens he throttle my inner self curls into a tight ball and hides. Hard as a hammer, the CCR erupts into life, that immense powerplant pounding away like a road drill, the scream of the twin-screw Lysholm supercharger boring into my skull.
Not to put too find a point on it, when unleashed on the open road, no matter how briefly or judiciously, the CCR's acceleration is so brutal it spontaneously soils underwear. Well into his stride by now, Mr. Koenigsegg pulls back on the lengthy gearlever to grab second and then third gear. After more than a day of doing nothing, such explosive action is all a bit much, and while my face wears a mildly glazed expression of well-practiced ambiguity, my insides scream and squirm. This car, I conclude, is a heart attack on wheels.
The remainder of the journey to the test track is split between explosions of short but borderline psychedelic acceleration and merciful lulls. During these quiet moments, Christian takes the opportunity to detail the CCR's extensive list of upgrades and enhancements, his soft measured Scandinavian tones a soothing balm after the V8's caustic war-cry.
'People can say "It's just a Ford engine",' he remarks without a hint of angst, 'but I don't see any 806bhp, full homologated engines in the Ford sales catalogue.
'We worked it out that the engine is 80 percent Koenigsegg-engineered. The block is from Ford Racing, yes, but pretty much everything else is Koenigsegg: the oil-spray lubrication of the pistons, engineering the engine as a stressed member of the chassis, the exhaust, flywheel, clutch, supercharger, pistons, fuel system, con-rods, and crankshaft. They are all to our designs. In a way it could almost have been our own block by now, but it suits us fine as it is. Maybe from an image point of view it could be worth doing our own, but not from a technical one.
'Compared to the CC8S, the CCR's chassis is slightly reinforced, through extra bracing and a different lay-up of the tub. It also has different brakes, tyres, wheels, chock absorbers, anti-roll bars, engine internals, supercharging system, body changes, interior changes. I liken the differences between the two cars to comparing the BMW 330 to a BMW M3. That's the kind of difference between the CC8S and the CCR.'
