The battle to be the world’s fastest production car is well and truly underway, with Koenigsegg drawing first blood. Over the weekend, an Agera RS driven by factory test driver Niklas Lilja recorded a two-way average speed of 447 km/h (277.9 mph) to set a new highest speed ever recorded by a production car.
That figure beats out the current official record set by a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which clocked 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph) as confirmed by Guinness World Records (sorry, Hennessey Venom GT).
Following recognised standards, the vehicle’s speed was taken at an average involving runs in both directions to account for among other things, wind speed and elevation changes. The runs were recorded using not just the car’s own instruments, but also with a separate Racelogic VBOX HD2 device.
As you can see in the video, the Agera RS went over 457 km/h (284 mph) on one of its runs, but was slightly slower in the opposite direction. Remember, it is the average speed of both runs that is considered for the record attempt.
The feat was accomplished on a 17.7-km stretch of closed public highway between Las Vegas and Pahrump, requiring just a few hours and three runs – one sighting run and two runs in both directions – to complete. According to Top Gear, the Agera RS used was the same customer car that recently smashed the Chiron’s 0-400-0 km/h record.
Bugatti will only attempt an unrestricted top speed run with the Chiron in 2018, which is currently limited to 420 km/h (261 mph), but is said to be capable of doing 463 km/h (288 mph). Lest we forget, the recently introduced Hennessey Venom F5 has a claimed top speed of 484 km/h (301 mph). For now, the Agera RS looks to be your new speed king.
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engine sound like tree cutter….puik!
It sounds a lot like the cars of Australia’s V8 (now planning to switch to V6) Supercars racing series, and trust me in real life they sound like a wolf/bull hybrid.
Congrats to Koenigsegg for setting the fastest car record for now. Am sure Hennessy with their Venom will want to wipe out the smile on your face with their claim 484 kmh.
So far Hennessy is on paper talk only. Koenigsegg has proven it.
There’s not even any official pics of the Venom F5’s interior. I am sure the Venom F5 is not production-ready and still in prototype stage.