In just the past couple months, we’ve seen Bugatti set a new 0-400-0 kph record, Koenigsegg beat it, as well as Hennessey’s reveal of the new, 301-mph Venom F5 hypercar. It’s safe to say that the war for straight-line supremacy is well underway.
The latest development in the battle for obscene speedo-figures comes out of Koenigsegg. The Swedish automaker shut down an 11-mile stretch of Nevada’s Route 160 on Saturday in an attempt to break the production car top speed record—an attempt that proved successful. Averaging 277.9 mph two ways (to offset the effects of wind and gravity), the Koenigsegg Agera RS is now, officially, the fastest production car ever made.
That’s right, ladies and gents, for the first time in 12 years, the fastest production car crown belongs to a vehicle that doesn’t wear a Bugatti badge. The Agera RS bests Bugatti’s record of 265.7 mph by over 12 mph—a record set by the French firm’s Veyron Super Sport back in 2010.
Speaking to The Drive, a direct source that witnessed the event firsthand says the RS hit a one-way top speed of 284.7 mph before running into the rev limiter (leading to an other-way top speed of 271.1 mph, if my arithmetic holds up) and that the run from 0-250 mph (402 kph) was dealt with in just 33 seconds. Which was no big deal, apparently, since Koenigsegg factory driver Niklas Lilja says he could’ve reached that speed a whole 2 seconds sooner “if he wanted to,” according to our source. It’s also said that the Agera RS’s surge of torque did not drop off after 240 mph. In total, Lilja went for 7 top speed runs and went from 0-400 kph-0 three times.
Powered by a 5.0-liter V8, the Koenigsegg Agera RS tips the scales at less than 3,100 pounds. In standard form, the Agera RS pumps out a mighty 1,160 horsepower. Cars equipped with the optional “1 MegaWatt” package, however, produce a Chiron-baiting 1,341 horsepower. The company hasn’t yet specified whether or not the record-setting Agera had this box ticked, but we’d honestly be pretty shocked if it didn’t.
Koenigsegg is promising to reveal more details—and video evidence—on its new speed record in the following days. For now, though, we’d imagine Christian and the gang in Ängelholm have some champagne-popping to attend to.