Koenigsegg Regera First Drive: How Having 1,500 HP and No Gearbox Works, 20 Units Already Sold

The video, which you can find below, sees Christian Von Koenigsegg doing the driving and the carmaker's copywriter, Steven Wade, capturing everything on his iPhone. Once the two finished their ride, Wade put together a writeup on the company's page.

The keyboard man, who seems to have a thing for Saabs and Porsche, talks about the inevitable bias of his writing.

"There will be an inherent bias in what I write here and you’re free to take it with an appropriately sized grain of salt. That said, I urge you to ignore the temptation to write this off as an insider sales piece. The chance to actually ride in a Koenigsegg is almost as new to me as it is to you. It’s not as if we employees get to drive Koenigseggs every day. In fact, the vast majority of us rarely get to be in a car at all," Steven said.

While such words do little to help us with the worries about the bias, there's one info coming from the man's article that has a much deeper effect. We were aware that Koenigsegg would only build 80 units of the Regera throughout the lifetime of the vehicle, but now we know that 20 of those have already been sold "as soon as the car was announced in 2015."

In our view, with a quarter of the production having already being spoken for, the K people can preach their hypercar ways without the kind of sales pressure that can ruin the entire tale.

We'll remind you that while the LaFerrari's entire 399-unit production was sold out when the hypercar was announced at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder took some time to reach this goal.

To put things bluntly, the Regera video showcases two main things. The first is the nature of a transmissioless driving experience. You see, the Regera's 1,100 hp twin-turbo 5.0-liter V8 sends its power to three electric motors. One of these is connected to the front of the crankshaft, working as a generator that charges the 9.27 kWh lithium-polymer battery pack housed in a tunnel at the center of the car. This electric motor also works as a starter motor.

The other two electric motors, which take the overall output to 1,500 hp and 1,475 lb-ft (2,000 Nm) feed the rear axle (one per each wheel). There's also a hydraulic coupling that disconnects the V8 and the generator-motor at speeds under 30 mph (48 km/h).

In the clip, you'll see Christian showing the effect of this coupling (also referred to as a clutch). The system can also be used to simulate gear changes, with the driver being able to use steering wheel-mounted paddles.

"For those who still think they might need a little old school gearchange feeling, we’ve also built in an electronic clutch feature that simulates the feeling of a kickdown gear change. Drivers are going to have to re-learn how to drive as they’re not going to have gears to reference corners with," Steven explains.

Secondly, we get a sample of the overall Regera experience. One aspect of this has to do with the brutal acceleration the 3,589 lbs/1628 kg (wet weight) of the contraption. Do keep in mind we are talking about an RWD machine being driven at -6 degrees Celsius (21.2 degrees Fahrenheit), so yes, the tires do scream a bit at times.

Another side of the overall experience has to do with the little details that make up the Regera. Sure, the Apple CarPlay interface on the center console infotainment display isn't finished yet and the digital instrument cluster is loaded with development data not normally shown to the driver. But seeing the Regera's tachometer in action deserves our undivided attention.

"The tachometer indicator moves around the dial as the revs build, just like in any other car. When you hit the go-pedal, however, the indicator gets bigger/fatter, denoting the fact that you’re using more of the available torque. It’s a brilliant interactive graphic that’s going to cost some of our customers some speeding fines, I think. Stay safe, hombres," Wade further explains.

The man ends his writeup by mentioning that Koenigsegg has a two-year backlog of work to handle.

If you happen to be the kind who appreciates the organic driving experience provided by a Caterham or even a Miata, there are much more affordable and less speedy ways of getting your thrills, with a third pedal involved. But if, on the other hand, you're the kind that gets high on finding out the Corvette Z06's torque converter tranny pulls faster shifts than some double-clutch units, you should keep a close eye on what happens in Ängelholm, Sweden.