Christian von Koenigsegg standing in front of the shell of what will become one of the fastest cars in the world.
On an decomissioned air-force base just outside the small town of Ängelholm on the west-coast of Sweden sits the factory of the most unlikely supercar manufacturer in the world. Forget Ferraris and Lamborghinis, Koenigsegg is in a class above, consistently setting Guinness World records for the fastest acceleration and deceleration of a production car, most recently in 2015 when it's One:1 car (so called because it produces 1 megawatt of power, the first car ever to do so) recorded 0-300-0 kph in 17.9 seconds.
The company was started in 1994 by it's namesake, Christian Von Koenigsegg, a 22 year old with no formal design or engineering training, in a country with no infrastructure or culture of producing supercars. He got a grant from the government to build a prototype, assembled a ragtag team, took that prototype to the Cannes film festival to show it off and the rest is history. Since then the company has produced 122 cars, and currently produces about 12-13 cars a year. Count on dropping $2 million on one of these bad boys before even thinking about optional extras, like that diamond encrusted steering wheel you can't live without.
The factory is more less like a factory and more like the nicest mechanics garage you have ever been in, times a million. People take their time around here, making sure every detail is perfect. Christian gave us a tour of the factory and was a pretty laid back fellow, but not laid back enough to let us drive one of the cars though.
Shot for N by Norwegian Magazine, March 2013
