By Tycho de Feijter for 6th Gear Automotive Solution.
Beijing, September 2019.
Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg has broken the 0-400-0 km/h record. This record is about acceleration and even more about braking. A car has to speed as fast as possible to 400 kilometers per hour, and then it has to hit the brakes hard to come to a full stop. The new record is 31.49 seconds. The previous record, 33.29 seconds, was set by Koenigsegg as well, as was the record before that.
The latest 0-400-0 record was set by the new Koenigsegg Regera hypercar, on a former-military airfield near Lidköping in Sweden. Total distance used was 2048.46 meters. The Regera is a unique and revolutionary car: it is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) without a traditional gearbox. The gearbox has been replaced by what the company calls Koenigsegg Direct Drive (KDD), a single-speed fixed-gear transmission. The deletion of the standard gearbox saves weight and deletes complexity.
The powertrain consists of three electric motors and one 5.0 liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. The first electric motor is located on the crankshaft in front of the mid-mounted engine. The second and third motors are located behind the engine, on the wheel shaft, with each motor powering one wheel. The 4.5 kWh 800 volt battery pack sits in the center, under the cabin. Combined output is 1500 hp and 2000 Nm, good for a top speed of 410 km/h and a 0-100 in 2.8 seconds.
During the record-breaking run the Regera sprinted to 400 km/h in 22.87 seconds. Even more impressive was the car’s braking; it took just 8.62 seconds to get back to zero. The Regera is able to achieve this with a very advanced braking system. The brake calipers are developed in-house at Koenigsegg and fitted with ceramic pistons. The discs are ventilated-ceramic. The front brake disc has a diameter of 397 millimeter and a width of 40 millimeter. At the rear, brake disc diameter is 380 millimeter and width 34. The front brakes have six pistons each, and the rear brakes four. The braking system is assisted by the rear wing which functions as an air brake under heavy braking, a similar system as Bugatti uses.
Koenigsegg claims 31.49 seconds isn’t the end of their record-braking frenzy. The ultimate goal is to set a time of under 30 seconds. To that end, rumors say the company is developing an even faster variant of the Regera, with up to 1800 hp. It better have bigger brakes too.