Despite cheeky trips to the Nürburgring and glitzy Geneva unveils, hypercar development isn’t always glamorous. Case in point, even the priciest, most powerful machines still have to undergo many of the same crash tests as your neighbor’s mass-produced hatchback. Our friends over at Apex.One recently got an up-close look at how exactly Koenigsegg ensures its $2 million Regera is safe for public consumption.
A bit like spotting a celebrity at the DMV, seeing the Swedish hypercar’s exotic carbon body get smashed, hammered on, and wantonly flung over a massive speed bump is—excuse the cliché—not something you see every day.
Unlike car-printing giants Volkswagen or Toyota, a boutique automaker like Koenigsegg doesn’t exactly have a bunch of Regera bodies lying around to sacrifice to the Euro NCAP (the European equivalent to IIHS). For that reason, all crash tests are done with pretty much the same car with Koenigsegg rebuilding it after each hit. Because of the Regera’s carbon monocoque construction (and not to mention how expensive each additional Regera dummy would cost), it actually makes more sense to crash-and-rebuild rather than use multiple cars.
“It’s cheaper to rebuild and repair and keep smashing the same car,” company big boss Christian von Koenigsegg told Apex.One. “That’s of course in a way more difficult because it needs to take multiple hits, but we designed for that and it saves us both time and money and resources.”
Limited to just 80 units, the Regera uses a 1,500-horsepower, twin-turbo 5.0-liter V8 hooked up to a single-gear direct-drive transmission. If you think that’s cool, its Jesko successor produces 1,600 horsepower and is mated to a trick “Light Speed Transmission” featuring seven clutches.