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Koenigsegg harvests Thor’s lightning with the One:1

The Koenigsegg moniker has become synonymous not just with performance but also with driving right on the bleeding edge. And if the boss Christian von Koenigsegg is to be believed, what we’ve seen from the Swedish supercar maker over the last 20 years is only the beginning.

Koenigsegg claims its One:1 prototype is about to shatter just about every record on the books.

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The name One:1 stands for the car’s power to weight ratio. It’s designed to weigh only 1,400 kilos and pack in an astounding 1,400 horsepower to match. If that weren’t impressive enough, Koenigsegg plans to achieve that ratio not just with the dry weight of the car but with coolant, oil and fuel included. To put this perspective, if I had the power to weight ratio of the One:1, I would make 86 horsepower – more than four Ford Model Ts or two and a half Spider-Mans.

The computer projections for this awesome power are – to put it simply – unbelievable. Koenigsegg states that, if all goes according to plan, the One:1 will be able to achieve 280 miles per hour, making it the fastest production car in the world. What is even more insane is that the Koenigsegg will be able to reach 250 miles an hour in only 20 seconds, which is more than twice as fast as the Bugatti Veyron, according to Bloomberg.

Frankly, what that would look and feel like is beyond my ability to conceive. My best guess: a scramjet-powered Cheetah hyped up on bath salts and deer antler spray. From the driver seat I think the world would just start looking like the Star Wars jump to hyperspace. Or that feeling when you stand up too fast.

It’s anyone’s guess if Koenigsegg will ever make this car, let alone whether it can possibly achieve these staggering performance numbers. My guess is that tires are going to be a real problem. However, if anyone can make this happen, I sincerely believe it is this small group of Swedish lunatics.

From the first time I saw a Koenigsegg on Top Gear, I knew that it should be every petrol head’s aspiration to arrive in racing Valhalla backwards in a flaming Koenigsegg. In the One:1, it just means that we are going to be able to get there much faster.

Peter Braun
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Peter is a freelance contributor to Digital Trends and almost a lawyer. He has loved thinking, writing and talking about cars…
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