Meet the world’s most powerful manual-transmission car: the Koenigsegg CC850, a 1,385-horsepower limited-production hand-built homage to the company’s first car, the CC8S. It’s got a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio just like the One:1, with 1,385 hp and a curb weight of 1,385 kg (3,053 lbs). It’s also got 1,385 nm (1,020 lb-ft) of torque, just to keep things even. Yet its real party piece is a unique six-speed gated shifter that has two different gear ratios as well as a nine-speed automatic mode.
That’s the car’s Engage Shift System, which allows you to use the transmission as a six-speed manual with a clutch pedal as well as a nine-speed automatic that shifts for you. There are two different gear ratios when you drive the car as a manual: one for road driving, and one for the track. The nine-speed automatic mode is meant to be smoother and more relaxed—er, as relaxing as it can get in a 1,385-hp hypercar.
It’s all powered by a twin-turbo aluminum 5.0-liter V8 that has that remarkably even set of mind-blowing specs. As with the Jesko, there is no flywheel attached to this engine, which Koenigsegg says makes it more responsive and faster-revving. It’s optimized to run on E85, which is how it achieves that 1,385-hp figure at 7,800 rpm. However, it’s no slouch on regular gasoline, where it makes 1,185 hp. Redline is a respectable 8,500 rpm, and the engine also features a flat-plane crank and dry sump lubrication.
The CC850 is truly a celebration of everything we love about hypercars as well as some pretty cool milestones. The CC8S packed the world’s most powerful production engine when it debuted in 2002 and made the whole world notice Koenigsegg. So, the CC850 marks both the CC8S’s 20th anniversary as well as company founder and CEO Christian von Koenigsegg’s 50th birthday this year. That’s the “50” part in the model name—and only 50 CC850s will be built accordingly.
The CC8S was so fresh when it debuted that Koenigsegg didn’t have to update much in the looks department to make the CC850 feel new and modern. Just like the CC8S, the CC850 has a sleek, no-nonsense interior, a detachable hardtop you can stow in the frunk and a shifter with a Swedish flag on top. It has phone-dial wheels that call back to Koenigsegg’s earliest models and an analog gauge cluster. Naturally, it also features Koenigsegg’s signature syncrohelix doors that spin up to open.
The CC850 has a carbon fiber monocoque with aluminum honeycomb and integrated fuel tanks, and has a body made of carbon fiber and kevlar. Side front and side skirt winglets work together with an active top-mount rear wing to provide 456 lbs of downforce at 155 mph—a figure that pales in comparison to the new GT3 RS, but high downforce was really the main point of the CC850, either. It has a coefficient of drag of just 0.34. There’s also a hydraulically adjustable suspension that allows you to adjust the car’s ride height.
According to Koenigsegg, the CC850 isn’t here to smash any of the Jesko’s records, but rather, to be the most satisfying Koenigsegg to drive yet. We’d certainly love to try that unique gearbox on an open track, that’s for sure.
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