Not a Swedish Meatball

Sweden. A country where you wouldn’t expect a complete line of ridiculous hypercars to come out of. First you might think of Italy, Germany, England, or even France before you think of Sweden. That didn’t stop Christian von Koenigsegg from trying to start his own exclusive car company. When he was 5 years old he watched a movie about a bicycle repairman that created his own racecar. This gave him the dream to make, in his opinion, a perfect supercar. After years of thinking and planning and in 1994 came up with the Koenigsegg project. This later became the company that it is now, Koenigsegg Automotive AB. Some people say that some of the earlier models were a bit unreliable and are in service for a decent amount of time. I can’t agree or disagree to that because I wasn’t given a lot of time with it but I still think that they are great cars. The newer models are competing against Bugatti’s, Pagani’s, and every other hypercar.

This exact model was the Koenigsegg CCXR Edition. It is based off of the CCX, but a biofuel/flexfuel version and was released in 2007. This version has a modified engine and fuel system. Flexfuel means that the engine can run on two different types of fuel, normal gas and ethanol. It doesn’t matter what the ratio is.

The exterior might not be that great in the eyes of some but the design is almost 10 years old. What makes it a little bit better is that it’s all bare carbon. All of it. Even the removable roof. The roof and the boot were designed so that the roof would actually fit perfectly inside of the boot. You wouldn’t need to risk leaving the roof somewhere if you wanted to enjoy a convertible Koenigsegg. For the headlights of the CCXR it’s a rather simple design and they resemble the rear end lights closely. Another point of interest is the front splitter. This model had the optional aero package. This added on the splitter and a wing on the back to increase downforce and stick the car to whatever surface it was driving on. The doors on every Koenigsegg model have extremely unique doors. When they are fully open they are straight up and only just cover a sliver of the wheel arch. Now, the rear. I think that the wing completes the rear almost. Without it it would look as if something was missing. It gives the rear another layer. Also, the rear lights suit the car. Then there is the one big exhaust to let out the outstanding notes made by the Swedish masterpiece. Overall, this isn’t flashy, but it does look pretty good.

The story behind the Koenigsegg ghost is actually an interesting one. Koenigsegg’s original factory was in a farm house. One day the farm house just burned down. Koenigsegg managed to remove most of the equipment and cars before they got ruined, but they had lost their factory. They eventually moved into an old military base that was close to their old farm house. When they came in their the ghost was on a wall. This was the symbol of the squadron that used to be there. They were the oldest airplane squadron in Sweden and were called the ghosts because when their planes flew people could hear them but not see them. They also took the slogan “The Show Must Go On” and put it on their airplanes. Then their show stopped but, when Koenigsegg came in they asked then if they could continue the show and put their ghost on their cars. They said yes and every car that they made from that factory has had the ghost put on it.

Under that ghost is the CCXR’s massive engine. It has a V8 that rams out a whopping 1018 horsepower. It can go from 0-60 in 2.9 seconds and has a top speed of more than 250 miles per hour. Those are rather impressive stats.

With a car this exclusive you would expect a pretty nice interior. The seats are made of premium leather and the steering wheel is mostly carbon fiber. This is the only CCXR that is right hand drive. There is a simple gear stick and the console looks like they could have done a little bit better. I think that the console is the only let down of the interior. On the passenger side the words “Koenigsegg Edition” are embroidered nicely.

This is a car with a big name and it meets most expectations. There were only 4 Koenigsegg CCXR’s made and for the price of only £825,000 or $1,075,758 you could have it.