View Large
The Koenigsegg Agera RS is officially the world’s fastest production car.
On a closed 11-mile section of Nevada highway, a Koenigsegg Agera RS recorded a two-way average top speed of 277.9 mph (444 km/h) on Saturday. The record books require a vehicle to complete two top speed runs in either direction, with the Agera RS clocking in at 284.55 mph in one direction and 271.19mph in the other. The second average speed was lower as the car was traveling on an uphill gradient.
The vehicle that recorded the top speed record was the same customer car that smashed Bugatti’s 0-400-0 record. The ambitious buyer of the car used some of his connections in the film industry to contact Nevada authorities and have the highway shut down for the speed runs. His Agera RS is a production-spec car with a 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8 making 1,360 horsepower and 1,011 lb-ft of torque.
SEE ALSO: Watch the Koenigsegg Agera RS Smash Bugatti’s 0-250-0 Record
One of the factors that always gets brought up when talking about top speed runs is the tires. Michelin was on hand for this top-speed run and wasn’t sure its tires would hold up at 280+ mph. But a shocked Michelin gave the Koenigsegg team the go-ahead after the Swedish automaker proved the tires were holding up just fine at those speeds and weren’t producing any kind of excessive heat or wear.
What’s next for the Koenigsegg team? Well, the test driver that completed these runs, Niklas Lilja, told he’d like to prove the Agera RS is “quicker than anything else in the corners too,” – perhaps alluding to a Nurburgring record attempt. Be scared, supercar makers. Be very scared.
[Source: Top Gear]
Leave a Reply