Koenigsegg Jesko Is A 1,600HP Road Rocket With Blistering 300 MPH Top Speed

Koenigsegg has been making insane hypercars for years now, and the latest ride from the mad scientists at the automaker has debuted. It's called the Koenigsegg Jesko, and this car represents the end of an era. The company namesake, Christian von Koenigsegg, has said that the Jesko is expected to be the last car to bear his name without electrification, but the Jesko don't need no stinkin' batteries. If you are wondering what's the deal with the Jesko name, it's the name of von Koenigsegg's father.

This car has a heavily modified version of the Koenigsegg V8 used in other rides, and that revision lets it make 1,600hp when running on E85 fuel, or 1,280 hp on pump gas. The V8 has a flat-plane crank weighting 27.5-pounds and uses some sort of fancy Swedish alloy for the connecting rods making them weigh just 19 pounds with the bolts. The pistons weigh 0.63 pounds each. All that power goes to the road via a 9-speed gearbox with seven clutches inside.

The brute of an engine is twin turbocharged and uses pressurized air to spool the compressor wheels and heat the catalytic converters more quickly on cold starts. Pressurized air stored in carbon fiber tanks gets the turbos spinning faster to reduce turbo lag. Koenigsegg says that the engine meets all emissions standards out as far as 2026. Remember that fancy transmission; it has a shift stick or paddles. While not a manual, you can push it gently to shift one gear up or down, but push it further, and you get "ultimate power on demand" mode where the transmission finds the best gear for maximum acceleration with the transmission boasting no drop in torque as you accelerate. Complex, but incredibly fast.

There will be 125 cars built in two versions. The version in the images is the track flavor and will produce 3,000 lbs of downforce at speed and uses the Koenigsegg Triplex suspension at the front and rear. That's too much downforce for a streetcar apparently; the road version is a low drag ride. It offers enough space in the front trunk to stow a removable targa panel. Word is that the Jesko will be able to hit 300 mph and both the track and street versions will be street legal globally. As for pricing, lots and lots, but man is this thing fast.