Less than a month ago, Bugatti announced that, with Juan Pablo Montoya at the wheel, the Chiron managed to record a run from zero to 249 mph to zero (zero to 400 km/h to zero) in 41.96 seconds. Somewhere in Sweden, Christian von Koenigsegg thought his car could do better. And it has.
Interestingly, Koenigsegg is planning to do a record run with the Regera, its equally sold out electrified hypercar. However, it used a brand-new Agera RS this time, simply because its owner was very keen to verify the car’s performance. Following its completion, the car went through the usual 186-mph testing at Koenigsegg’s airfield, only to head immediately for Vandel, a former base for the Danish Army Air Service that was closed for military purposes in 2003 and became the largest solar farm in Scandinavia.
Destined for America, this Agera RS features Koenigsegg’s 1MW engine upgrade providing 1360 horsepower and 1011 lb-ft of torque, as well as the optional removable roll cage.
Originally, the test was planned to run between September 30 and October 2 at the Papenburg test facility in Germany, but the weather forecast forced Koenigesegg to engage plan B. As there was a window of good weather in southern Scandinavia on Sunday, October 1, the team rushed to Vandel with a car that still had its protective industrial tape over various surfaces to protect it from debris.

And there was plenty of debris. After being closed for 14 years, Vandel’s 1.7-mile runway was in a c...