The Secret Koenigsegg You’ve Never Heard Of…

Опубликовано 11 сентября 2024, 15:00

Once upon a time, a man called Christian created a car company called Koenigsegg.

To prove his new cars were the best, he wanted to take them racing. Specifically at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – and so he designed his road cars to mirror FIA GT1 regulations. In parallel, he developed a racing car too, taking his optimised road car as the basis and readying it for battle at the world’s greatest endurance race.

But, sadly, before it could turn a wheel in anger, the rules changed as homologation production numbers for the GT1 class jumped from 20 cars over several years to 350 per year, putting an end to Koenigsegg’s Le Mans ambitions. The project was mothballed, and the car sold to a Koenigsegg shareholder.

However, the one-off CCGT prototype was auctioned in the summer of 2023 (for £3.3m. Imagine if it had raced at Le Mans…) and has been back to Christian and co for some restoration work. It’s now ready to hit the track once more and, whisper it, a regulation quirk might even mean it can finally race at Le Mans…

Over to Top Gear Magazine’s Head of Car Testing, Ollie Marriage, and a certain Christian von Koenigsegg, for the full story…

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