Watch Koenigsegg set a 277.9 mph speed record in its Agera RS hypercar

midian182

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Swedish high-performance car manufacturer Koenigsegg has broken the top speed record for a production vehicle. On Saturday, factory driver Niklas Lilja reached 277.9 mph (447.1km/h) in one of the company's Agera RS hypercars.

The two runs took place on Nevada’s Route 160 between Las Vegas and Pahrump. An 11-mile straight section of the highway was closed for the drives, which beat rival car-maker Bugatti’s previous record of 268 mph. Earlier in October, Koenigsegg took another record from Bugatti, smashing the 0-400-0 km/h record. It managed the feat in 37.28 seconds, 26.88 seconds of which were used to reach the top speed of 400 km/h (249 mph).

You can watch both high-speed runs in the video above, which was posted on YouTube by Julian Thomas. While one sees the driver hit 438 kmh/h, he reaches 457 km/h during another attempt. The official time is taken from an average of the two speeds. The uphill gradient and strong headwinds Lilja faced makes the runs all the more impressive.

To hit these incredible speeds, the Agera RS is built using a lightweight carbon fiber body and an aluminum honeycomb monocoque structure. Its 5-liter twin-turbo V8 provides it with 1,160 horsepower. Not surprisingly, the car doesn't come cheap; expect to pay around $2.1 million for the privilege of owning one.

While Bugatti will be itching to get its record back, both companies will likely face another rival looking to take the crown: Hennessey. It recently announced that the successor to the Venom GT, the 1600-bhp Venom F5, could break the 300-mph limit.

Away from street-legal cars, the first public tests of the Bloodhound, a vehicle designed to go over 1000 mph, took place in the UK last month.

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Damn! That's impressive. 20 years ago I would've paid anything to be the driver, these days you can't pay me enough to do it. I'm waiting anxiously to see if Andy Green can exceed 1600 Km/h in 'Bloodhound'. I certainly hope so.
 
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Impressive, especially since it was on a conventional paved surface vs. the salt flats trials. Seeing that vehicle go 1,000 MPH will be REALLY impressive! Hope he makes it!
 
I guess I'll have to trade in my empty beer bottles.
must be a nice stretch of highway.wouldn't get half a km in that thing here.bad roads.lol:(
 
The acceleration from 180mph when he opens it up fully and the boost comes (around 4:19 top video) to 250mph is ridiculous. It's about 12 seconds.

Very fast cars do 125mph to 185mph in like 14 or 15 seconds. But this can go from 180 to 250 easily faster than say a Lamborghini Aventador can do 125 to 185!
 
Last year Kenan Sofuoglu did 0 to 400 Km/h in 26 seconds on a stock Kawasaki Ninja H2R. It didn't cost $2.1 million (currency?), I can go buy one of these Kawasaki at my local dealer for $47,900 USD. Then there are the Suzuki Hayabusa's stock and modified that really go...
 
When Ferrari had the 250GTO homologated (the "O" in Gran Turisimo Omologato - GTO) they were required to produce 100 examples to prove it was a "production" car. They only built 37, incurring the ire of the sanctioning body of the 24 hours of Le Mans. That is the standard. No car qualifies as "the fastest car in the world" until it's licensed for the road and has been produced in a series of at least 100 examples. Otherwise it's a "one-off" and competes in a different class. If it does not meet those criteria, then unless it has surpassed the record of ThrustSSC, which was officially timed at 763 mph 20 years ago October 15, 1997, on the Al Jafr desert in Jordan, it's not "the fastest car in the world."
 
Last year Kenan Sofuoglu did 0 to 400 Km/h in 26 seconds on a stock Kawasaki Ninja H2R. It didn't cost $2.1 million (currency?), I can go buy one of these Kawasaki at my local dealer for $47,900 USD. Then there are the Suzuki Hayabusa's stock and modified that really go...
I should add that he was told "To lower the risk of a tyre blowout, the speed was to be reached in less than 30 seconds" It was also on a road "he opening of a new bridge across the Gulf of Izmit, 50km away from Istanbul" Shigeru Yamashita also did a repeat at the Bonneville Salt Flats (during Speed Week) using an unmodified engine and slightly modified bodywork. Tons of this kind of stuff on YouTube
 
When Ferrari had the 250GTO homologated (the "O" in Gran Turisimo Omologato - GTO) they were required to produce 100 examples to prove it was a "production" car. They only built 37, incurring the ire of the sanctioning body of the 24 hours of Le Mans. That is the standard. No car qualifies as "the fastest car in the world" until it's licensed for the road and has been produced in a series of at least 100 examples. Otherwise it's a "one-off" and competes in a different class. If it does not meet those criteria, then unless it has surpassed the record of ThrustSSC, which was officially timed at 763 mph 20 years ago October 15, 1997, on the Al Jafr desert in Jordan, it's not "the fastest car in the world."
That's the Le Mans definition, this isn't a car being tested by Le Mans so their definition doesn't mean much. Different countries and even different associations and governing bodies in each country all have their own definition of what production vehicle means and no one governing body has say over others regardless of what you think "the standard" is.
 
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