Koenigsegg Agera driven hard in Dubai

Low-cost DIY furniture might still be Sweden's most lauded export, but as I round the final corner of the Dubai Autodrome on the first major track testof the new Koenigsegg Agera, I know that's going to change.

We're in Dubai by happy coincidence,as Michelin arranged the drive for the launch of its new Pilot Super Sport tyre,but it's kind of fitting that our first driveof the Dh5-million creation takes placehere where the kind of men that can buy one call home.

The first production car left the factory just last month with 898bhp, courtesy of its monstrous 4.7-litre V8 twin turbo engine contained within a 1,290kg pre-impregnated carbon fibre and Kevlar chassis.

This is the prototype, armed with 800bhp, but as the V8 fires into life and settles to a stuttering, angry idle, it seems like more than enough.

Innovation is the game

The Agera has only two real rivals if we discount the American SSC Ultimate Aero, and most do. It competes with the most exclusive variants of the Pagani Zondaand the all-conquering Bugatti Veyron.The Swede is a different driving experience from the moment I nudge the starter button and the ceramic-coated Inconel exhaust — similar to Pagani's system — lets out a throaty roar. But it need not back down from either one.

It's a more muscular experience than the detail-intense and slightly fussy Zonda, from the design through to the drive.

Visually it's a big, bluff 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. Until the dihedral synchro helix door opens, swivels and pivots into position and jaws that had just scraped themselves off the floor hit the deck once again.

Christian von Koenigsegg is a designer at heart and loves these kinds of touches, has several patents on the engineering side, including a response charge system in the turbo system to improve the throttle response, and deserves more credit than he perhaps receives for innovation.

Possibly the biggest criticism is the visual similarity with the CC it replaces, but ithas a wider track, totally revised aero,a new interior and the infinitely cool ‘ghost light'. This uses carbon nanotubes to hide interior lighting until the car is turned on, when the lights appear to shine through solid aluminium.

He sketched out and modelled the base car and may not have even had time for cars if his previous inventions — a replacement for the Walkman that held music on a computer chip and glueless click laminate flooring — had been taken seriously. Others went on to do quite well with both of these concepts…

Incidentally, it looks better with the roof on, but under the blazing Middle Eastern sunshine it's only right to go alfresco, remove the hard top with a spanner and stow it under the front clamshell. This is a neat trick that even the Veyron cannot match: with the Grand Sport you have to make a choice and leave the roof at home, taking a ridiculous emergency umbrella out with you to guard against rainstorms. The Koenigsegg doesn't only fit the roof in that front end, it can even take golf clubs, and wins the practicality war by a mile.

Venturi tunnels underneath the car anda rear diffuser ensure it is not adorned with excessive visible aero tricks on the surface. But even the wheels are designed to create a vortex at speed and reduce aero drag, so the car generates 300kg of downforce at 250kph — more if you opt for the robotised rear wing.

Inside, the neat, minimalist feel continues with the trademark round centre console and an LCD that lends a futuristic feel, even if it's hard to read in the blazing Dubai sunlight. Then there is the driving experience, which will simply emptyyour brain.

Awakening the beast

I roll out of the near-deserted pit lane at the Autodrome and plant the throttle for the first time. The Agera, which is the Swedish word for the verb ‘to act', just goes mad. All that power ploughs through the rear wheels and sends the Koenigsegg scorching to 100kph in 3.1 seconds, way faster than the Zonda. In 8.9 seconds, 200kph is conquered, and the Agerawill go from 0-200-0kph in just 13.7 seconds, which will leave you with internal bleeding.

It won't run out of steam until well beyond 390kph, although the top speed isn't fixed yet and the Veyron could have a sleepless night or two. But it's not just the numbers, it's the sheer violence of the turbo-powered delivery that marks this car apart.

It's an absolutely docile creature until the revs hit 3,500rpm and then it bolts forward with a jolt and I'm at the next bend. Then on lift-off, as I prepare to hit the ceramic brakes and flick down two gears on the seven-speed paddle-shift, a fireball erupts from that cannon of a central exhaust and the whole car shimmies as the wastegates open and send a convulsion throughthe drivetrain.

It takes real muscle to force into the bends too. Whereas the Zonda and Veyron can be trained on the apex with the fingertips, I'm using shoulder muscles with the Agera.

That's a legacy of grip and physical force, rather than weight. It can produce lateral cornering forces of 1.6g, thanks to epic levels of grip from the Michelin Pilot Super Sports and a set-up focused on the cornering speed, while the Veyron Super Sport will give 1.45g. That means, theoretically, that the Agera will destroy almost anything on track if the driver can find the very limit of the grip without barrelling through that fine line.

I can still feel the car tugging to the outside of the circuit, understeering ever so slightly on a constant throttle. Of course you can balance the rear slip angle with a delicate right foot or push straight through into lairy, sliding oversteer with a hefty application of throttle, with the traction control switched off. But then with a turbo-powered car it makes sense to make it nose heavy. When a tail-happy car comes on boost mid-corner, in the wet, people die…

The brakes, meanwhile, are pin-sharp ceramics mated to six piston callipers and the car's stability under heavy deceleration is a testament to the engineering throughout. The Veyron and this are two of the only cars that brake in a perfectly straight line without a hand on the wheel.

Verdict

It's still a hardcore car and only a few special souls can truly appreciate its skills, but then Koenigsegg sells just 15 cars a year and only needs a few elite souls that truly ‘get it'.

Customers tend to be heads of state or self-made billionaires on the lookout for something different, more extreme and more hardcore than they can find elsewhere.

And now, Sweden has more to offer them than an inexpensive coffee table…

specs & ratings

Model Agera
Engine 4.7-litre V8 twin turbo
Transmission Seven-speed sequential, RWD
Power 800bhp @ 6,850rpm
Torque 1,000Nm @ 2,680rpm
0-100kph 3.1sec
Top speed 395kph+
Price Dh5m
Plus Brutal acceleration and even better handling
Minus Edgy at the limit

Rivals

Bugatti Veyron

Going by price, maybe the standard Veyron is more of a rival, but performance is the Koenigsegg's raison d'être, so the Veyron Super Sport it is then… It will obliterate the Swede in the top-speed stakes, but on track, the Agera could corner up to 20 per cent quicker, despite one less driven axle. If we were to choose between the two, a coin toss would suffice.

Pagani Zonda F

The ultimate Italian performance car might have a German 7.3-litre V12 AMG heart, but the chassis and body are all Pagani. Also, it's normally aspirated for 594bhp. We're told it has sublime handling, and is one of the tamest supercars when driven on the limit. The F is a homage toJuan Manuel Fangio, which makes it extra cool.

1997 CC

The first Koenigsegg prototype weighed much less, 900kg, but then again, it was a prototype. It was the only Koenigsegg so far to feature a V12, 3.8-litres in displacement, and made 500bhp at 9,000rpm, thanks to a turbo. 0-100kph came in 3.2 seconds and top speed was 354kph.