Photo: Koenigsegg
There’s a reason Koenigsegg made the Jesko Attack, but it’s up to every owner of the megacar to find out what that reason is. The Swedish company is never far away from the fun side of building mind-blowing cars, and their most track-oriented model is out to prove what ‘smiles per gallon’ is all about in Scandinavia.
Koenigsegg isn’t abundant in social media activity, but it keeps a discrete and composed presence for the fans to enjoy. The latest post shows a splendid Jesko Attack – unmistakable due to its fighter-jet-sized rear wing – thrashing a track somewhere in a snowy region of Planet Piston. Now, Sweden is close enough to the Arctic Circle to still enjoy some winter, even in late March, but it doesn’t really matter.
With the sun up, it couldn’t have been a better day for a top-down, flat-out ice skating session. Not a metaphor, as we can see – hardly anything that comes from Koenigsegg is not firmly rooted in cold, hard factual reality. The Attack is one of the two variants of the Jesko – ‘The fastest car we’ll ever make‘ (Christian von Koenigsegg’s own words) – but so far, we haven’t had official ratings for what the cars are capable of.
Instead, we get visual cues – like the attached videos, showing a Jesko roadster playfully revving its 5.0-liter V8 on a snow track. The Attack nameplate is self-explanatory – the megacar is meant to do one thing better than anyone else: blitz the circuit. Should the term ‘megacar’ sound odd, only because using ‘hypercar’ won’t cut it. After all, the power-to-weight ratio of this 1.42-ton missile with wipers is supra-unitary.
1,600 twin-turbo metric horsepower (1,578 hp) on E85 fuel isn’t just anyone’s cup of tea, even in this day and age when nearly everyone is throwing outrageous horsepower figures out the window. Koenigsegg makes it look like a casual Friday afternoon walk in the park. Or on a frozen lake (presumably), although it is right at home on a snow track in the forest, on solid ground (play the second video).
I can’t point out one specific triggering factor for the 360-degree dance of the Attack; it could be due to the slippery surface on which it plays, the incredible downforce it generates, the massive wheelspin enforced by the 1,500 Nm of torque (1,106 lb-ft – again, on high-octane fuel), or to all of them put together.
We don’t know how fast the Jesko Attack was going during the shooting, but whoever was behind the wheel did a fine job putting the car through its paces. The nine-speed Light Speed Transmission with the electronic differential integrated into the gearbox is probably second to a teleporting pad in responsiveness.
Even if the star of this short video isn’t running on 85% ethanol blend but on regular pump gasoline, it still puts down 1,280 PS (1,263 hp), more than enough to throw the megacar in a perfectly controlled tailspin. As for the Attack’s secret weapon (its aerodynamics), it should be noted that, at the undisclosed top speed, the Jesko is pushed to the ground by a force equal to its body weight.
1.4 tons of downforce is the maximum the Jesko’s aero kit can produce – presumably when going flat out. It’s like having another Jesko sitting on top of it. According to the manufacturer, at 250 kph (155 mph), the vehicle experiences a down-push of 0.7 tons; at 290 kph (180 kph), the pressure reaches one full ton. 125 examples of the Koenigsegg Jesko model will be assembled (the Attack and the Absolut production figures combined).
With the sun up, it couldn’t have been a better day for a top-down, flat-out ice skating session. Not a metaphor, as we can see – hardly anything that comes from Koenigsegg is not firmly rooted in cold, hard factual reality. The Attack is one of the two variants of the Jesko – ‘The fastest car we’ll ever make‘ (Christian von Koenigsegg’s own words) – but so far, we haven’t had official ratings for what the cars are capable of.
Instead, we get visual cues – like the attached videos, showing a Jesko roadster playfully revving its 5.0-liter V8 on a snow track. The Attack nameplate is self-explanatory – the megacar is meant to do one thing better than anyone else: blitz the circuit. Should the term ‘megacar’ sound odd, only because using ‘hypercar’ won’t cut it. After all, the power-to-weight ratio of this 1.42-ton missile with wipers is supra-unitary.
1,600 twin-turbo metric horsepower (1,578 hp) on E85 fuel isn’t just anyone’s cup of tea, even in this day and age when nearly everyone is throwing outrageous horsepower figures out the window. Koenigsegg makes it look like a casual Friday afternoon walk in the park. Or on a frozen lake (presumably), although it is right at home on a snow track in the forest, on solid ground (play the second video).
I can’t point out one specific triggering factor for the 360-degree dance of the Attack; it could be due to the slippery surface on which it plays, the incredible downforce it generates, the massive wheelspin enforced by the 1,500 Nm of torque (1,106 lb-ft – again, on high-octane fuel), or to all of them put together.
We don’t know how fast the Jesko Attack was going during the shooting, but whoever was behind the wheel did a fine job putting the car through its paces. The nine-speed Light Speed Transmission with the electronic differential integrated into the gearbox is probably second to a teleporting pad in responsiveness.
Even if the star of this short video isn’t running on 85% ethanol blend but on regular pump gasoline, it still puts down 1,280 PS (1,263 hp), more than enough to throw the megacar in a perfectly controlled tailspin. As for the Attack’s secret weapon (its aerodynamics), it should be noted that, at the undisclosed top speed, the Jesko is pushed to the ground by a force equal to its body weight.
1.4 tons of downforce is the maximum the Jesko’s aero kit can produce – presumably when going flat out. It’s like having another Jesko sitting on top of it. According to the manufacturer, at 250 kph (155 mph), the vehicle experiences a down-push of 0.7 tons; at 290 kph (180 kph), the pressure reaches one full ton. 125 examples of the Koenigsegg Jesko model will be assembled (the Attack and the Absolut production figures combined).
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