Koenigsegg’s Jesko Absolut, with a new record run, has recently made a spectacular statement, showing one of the most extreme hypercar performances in terms of speed and braking. It sprang from a dead stop to an astounding 400 kilometers per hour (248 mph) and then came to a complete halt in only 25.21 seconds. A factory-backed project has barely exceeded Rimac’s recent try with the Nevera R, which sought the same record.
Still, the contrasting ways these two road-legal giants use to accomplish this feat stand out most and, to some extent, the fact that the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut is even involved in this conversation. The numbers show that the difference appears to be rather small. With 25.21 seconds for the 0-400-0 km/h challenge, the Jesko Absolut surpasses the Rimac Nevera R’s time of 25.79 seconds by just over half a second.
The story behind these numbers, however, is very uneven; theoretically, the Swedish car should be almost impossible to surpass the Rimac Nevera R, particularly given the nearly two-ton weight of the former. Four electric motors produce an amazing 2107 horsepower and 1726 lb-ft of torque for the Croatian vehicle. Although it would seem like an impossible amount of power, Rimac skillfully utilizes it by means of creative design and divides this power over four tires.
Conversely, the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut features remarkable engineering achievements but lacks some important benefits Rimac has. First, it powers all 1600 horsepower through the back tires; second, it uses a twin-turbo V8 engine in place of the very reactive electric motors. Notwithstanding this grip and power disadvantage, the Jesko Absolut has won the 0–400–0 racing championship.
“The level of control we have now is similar to the control electric vehicles have over their motors,” says Christian von Koenigsegg. “Our software engineers have been fine-tuning and optimizing the Lightspeed transmission software; they have also included a torque control mechanism in the vehicle that lowers the need for traction control intervention.”
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