Photo: Riccardo Angelini/Instagram
Ladies and gentlemen drivers, the pixels you are gazing at are even more important than they might seem. Sure, these independent renderings, which portray a concept for a new Koenigsegg racecar/ sister road car, are a sight for sore eyes. But their potential real-world implication and the way they came to be will get an aficionado's heart racing.
The visual adventure we have here was born as part of the #KoenigseggSketchChallenge. As I discussed with the Swedish carmaker's new design boss, Sasha Selipanov, this is an ongoing initiative that invites designers from across the world wide web to imagine the Egg of their dreams. And while this pair of machines is one of the many submissions (there's even an SUV, one that could be built under a different brand working with Koenigsegg's new RAW Design House, which is led by Sasha), it's among my favorite hypercars introduced via the said challenge.
The whole concept comes from Riccardo Angelini, Lead Exterior Designer at Tata Motors (the office in Turin, Italy), which is Jaguar Land Rover's parent company - it's only normal for designers to come up with sketches that showcase toys belonging to other brands in their Instagram spare time.
Zooming in on the lines of the machines, which you'll find in the Insta posts at the bottom of the page, you'll notice that the design DNA of the Swedish brand is clearly here. Whether we're talking about the front end styling cues of the Le Mans prototype racer-like greenhouse, this thing looks like a proper Koenigsegg.
While the 360-degree rear wing dominates the track version, the longtail approach is still visible with the road car. And Riccardo also talks about the hardware hidden inside the amazing aero work, noting that the Akrapovic exhaust comes in the form of titanium blades that blend in with the rest of the design.
Now, as the endurance fans among you might've already guessed by now, the fact that we're dealing with a racecar that also comes with a street-legal sibling sounds a bit like something that follows the rules of the upcoming Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) class - this name has only recently become official.
Announced back in June 2018, the hypercar class will be the top tier of the 2020/2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, with this set to replace the current LMP1 class (LMP2 will live on, albeit with less power and a single tire across the grid).
That's right, you adrenaline junkies, the homologation specials are coming back: twenty road-legal units of a racecar must be built, while both hybrid and internal combustion-only machines are allowed.
The list of names that have expressed their intention to battle in this arena so far includes Toyota's Gazoo Racing, Aston Martin (clear interest in the first season), Peugeot (from 2022 onwards), as well as exclusive vehicle builder Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, while Mercedes-AMG and McLaren are also on the list.
Well, this whole field sounds like a brilliant playground for Koenigsegg to prove itself on the circuit after having grabbed multiple production car speed records, ensuring these don't land in Bugatti's trophy cabinet.
Besides, the K brand might just want to finally fulfill its Le Mans plans - back in 2007, when the company was still in its "teenage" years, it came up with the CCGT, a racecar that was supposed to comply with the GT1 class regulations. Sadly, the Swedish racecar never got to see the checkered flag due to the said regulations changing - you'll find a few photos of the racer in the final part of the gallery above.
In fact, Koenigsegg's website has a section dedicated to the CCR and here's a part of the story this tells: "The CCGT was developed on the bones of the Koenigsegg CCR but its origins go back even further to the original CC protoype [the first public effort of the company, which was showcased in 1996]. The CC prototype was designed with these regulations in mind, meaning that the road cars would become the perfect basis for competition cars in the future [...]. Koenigsegg was just beginning as a commercial car company and building cars for sale was the priority [...], so it took several years before the car was ready for testing,'
Meanwhile, the rule book was being rewritten: "The car showed great performance during testing[...]. The problem was that the governing bodies changed the rules for the Le Mans GT1 class, with carbon fibre monocoques disallowed and the minimum production number rising from 20 over several years to over 350 per year,"
So yes, there would be one or two reasons for Angelholm to return to Circuit de la Sarthe - I've reached out to Koenigsegg to see if the carmaker is considering entering the LMH. Meanwhile, if you're looking to start the week in pole position, you might as well (re)watch Ford v Ferrari, a brilliant motion picture that gives us Hollywood's version of the famous 1960 Le Mans war.
The whole concept comes from Riccardo Angelini, Lead Exterior Designer at Tata Motors (the office in Turin, Italy), which is Jaguar Land Rover's parent company - it's only normal for designers to come up with sketches that showcase toys belonging to other brands in their Instagram spare time.
Zooming in on the lines of the machines, which you'll find in the Insta posts at the bottom of the page, you'll notice that the design DNA of the Swedish brand is clearly here. Whether we're talking about the front end styling cues of the Le Mans prototype racer-like greenhouse, this thing looks like a proper Koenigsegg.
While the 360-degree rear wing dominates the track version, the longtail approach is still visible with the road car. And Riccardo also talks about the hardware hidden inside the amazing aero work, noting that the Akrapovic exhaust comes in the form of titanium blades that blend in with the rest of the design.
Now, as the endurance fans among you might've already guessed by now, the fact that we're dealing with a racecar that also comes with a street-legal sibling sounds a bit like something that follows the rules of the upcoming Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) class - this name has only recently become official.
Announced back in June 2018, the hypercar class will be the top tier of the 2020/2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, with this set to replace the current LMP1 class (LMP2 will live on, albeit with less power and a single tire across the grid).
That's right, you adrenaline junkies, the homologation specials are coming back: twenty road-legal units of a racecar must be built, while both hybrid and internal combustion-only machines are allowed.
The list of names that have expressed their intention to battle in this arena so far includes Toyota's Gazoo Racing, Aston Martin (clear interest in the first season), Peugeot (from 2022 onwards), as well as exclusive vehicle builder Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, while Mercedes-AMG and McLaren are also on the list.
Well, this whole field sounds like a brilliant playground for Koenigsegg to prove itself on the circuit after having grabbed multiple production car speed records, ensuring these don't land in Bugatti's trophy cabinet.
Besides, the K brand might just want to finally fulfill its Le Mans plans - back in 2007, when the company was still in its "teenage" years, it came up with the CCGT, a racecar that was supposed to comply with the GT1 class regulations. Sadly, the Swedish racecar never got to see the checkered flag due to the said regulations changing - you'll find a few photos of the racer in the final part of the gallery above.
In fact, Koenigsegg's website has a section dedicated to the CCR and here's a part of the story this tells: "The CCGT was developed on the bones of the Koenigsegg CCR but its origins go back even further to the original CC protoype [the first public effort of the company, which was showcased in 1996]. The CC prototype was designed with these regulations in mind, meaning that the road cars would become the perfect basis for competition cars in the future [...]. Koenigsegg was just beginning as a commercial car company and building cars for sale was the priority [...], so it took several years before the car was ready for testing,'
Meanwhile, the rule book was being rewritten: "The car showed great performance during testing[...]. The problem was that the governing bodies changed the rules for the Le Mans GT1 class, with carbon fibre monocoques disallowed and the minimum production number rising from 20 over several years to over 350 per year,"
So yes, there would be one or two reasons for Angelholm to return to Circuit de la Sarthe - I've reached out to Koenigsegg to see if the carmaker is considering entering the LMH. Meanwhile, if you're looking to start the week in pole position, you might as well (re)watch Ford v Ferrari, a brilliant motion picture that gives us Hollywood's version of the famous 1960 Le Mans war.
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