Yahoo Autos 2015 Koenigsegg One:1
All that seems a far-off dream as we’re parked in the dank grass next to a waterlogged runway. We’ve had a near miss while being driven by an expert in a straight line. The One:1 may not have earned itself a reputation as a widowmaker yet, but it feels as if today could be the day.
The good news is that the car is blameless. Nothing broke, snapped, or deflated. Walking back to where the spin began reveals more than an inch of water pooled in the center of the track. Even the One:1’s massive downforce couldn’t have stopped it from aquaplaning on its four rolling pins of rubber. So if we drive carefully, we should be fine.
Strapping into the One:1 is an event. The seat squeezes you tightly enough to constitute a sexual-harassment violation, and a six-point harness clamps you in place like you’re about to take the green at Le Mans. The trim is minimal but very expensive, with carbon everywhere and no parts-bin switchgear to betray the rifling of a Ford Focus for its plastic bits. The central TFT speedometer reads to a no-bull 450 km/h (280 mph), and to the bottom left of the instrument panel there’s a small power gauge to show what horsepower the engine is producing. It reads to 1200.
Sadly, that’s one jackpot I’ll not be hitting this afternoon. The One:1 is well mannered during a gentle sighting run, the engine loud but tractable at low revs, surging as the turbochargers spin up. The 5.1-liter V-8 produces 738 pound-feet of torque from just 3000 rpm, and the traction control is cutting in with barely a couple of inches of throttle applied. I try a full-throttle standing start, which brings a Götterdämmerung of sound and fury as engine and tires engage in open warfare. But the power meter doesn’t go over the 600 mark, and the wheels are still trying to spin at 100 mph. Acceleration feels immense; the frustration is knowing how much beyond immense it would be were it not soaking wet out.
We give up on the track and head back to the factory, taking a scenic tour of some of the local roads. Considering it’s the black-hearted, turned-up-to-11 spinoff of what’s already a track-focused hellion, the One:1 deals well with the real world. It rides smoothly despite its rubber-bushing-free suspension, and the steering is nicely weighted and extremely accurate but not geared too quickly. The seven-speed automated manual isn’t the quickest, offering a distinct pause between gears. Gearchanges at high rpm are sharpened by a second clutch, similar to the brakes found in planetary automatics and fitted to the rear of the input shaft, which slows the input speed and eases synchro workload [see “Inside the ’Egg’s Shell” on the next page]. But it’s easy to drive safely at the sort of pace that almost nothing else could touch, without using all its performance. As we approach the factory, the One:1 demonstrates another of its tricks, the suspension automatically lifting the front end for the speed bumps the GPS knows are coming.
Before going to bed, and having done some research on Wiki, I offer a quiet invocation to Sól, the Norse god of the sun, to give us some dry pavement in the morning.
My prayer is half-answered. Dawn arrives gray and cloudy, but it’s not actually raining. The runway is damp and greasy, the standing water is gone. The conditions are as good as they’re going to get.
Koenigsegg’s test driver Robert Serwanski (not the man who spun the One:1 earlier) is with me today. He’s a former Mazda MX-5 Cup racer who somehow went from driving one of the world’s slowest race cars to the job of developing the world’s fastest road car. If things go according to plan, he will be the man driving for the Nordschleife record attempt later this year. He takes the One:1 for a what-will-it-do run, stability control switched off and the car drifting back and forth down the center of the runway in a neat sine wave as he tries to work some heat into the tires. He returns to report that, although traction is poor, I should be able to get to 200 mph and still have room to stop in the slightly-more-than-a-mile distance that Koenigsegg uses for testing.
I don’t hang around to wonder whether this is a good idea. From a gentle start, it’s obvious there’s more grip and traction than yesterday. The back end is still wriggling as the torque arrives, but it’s a gentle retiree-dinner-dance shimmy compared with yesterday’s full-on twerking. The throttle delivers far stronger response, and the pedal goes deeper before the traction control intervenes. Serwanski says the stability control works best if you don’t try to second-guess it with your own steering corrections. At full throttle, acceleration be-comes brutal. Forget that supercar staple, the forceful shove in the back; the One:1 attacks you like Jack Reacher in a bar fight.
Even in fourth gear, the engine is still flaring as the rear wheels lose and regain grip. But then, on the slippery surface, something genuinely amazing happens as the aerodynamic downforce pushes harder and the tires connect. Well north of 100 mph, the rate of acceleration actually increases as the tires get a firm purchase on the damp surface. I change up at 8000 rpm and glance, very briefly, at the power meter, which is reading 1000. There are only a few seconds to experience the One:1 in full flight; the end of the runway is starting to look very big in the windshield. But it’s enough.
I leave Sweden both elated and frustrated. We experienced a full-throttle run in the One:1, and I have no doubt that it is one of the fastest cars ever to wear a license plate. And also one of the most exciting. We just wish we’d had a wide, dry racetrack and a liberal insurance policy to enjoy it properly. It doesn’t matter what you’ve driven before, the One:1 is going to challenge you. This is a car that makes a 40-yard-wide military runway seem like Ted Kaczynski’s driveway, a car that makes 1000-plus horsepower feel as exciting as that number should. On a feline scale, it would be an angry mountain lion while the McLaren P1 is a house cat that brings in the occasional bird, and the Bugatti Veyron is an overweight old tom snoozing on the veranda, tail under an empty rocking chair.
We’ll be truly surprised if the One:1 doesn’t prove to be the fastest production car to ever lap the Nordschleife. Hypercar fanboys, bow down before your new god.
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