Throughout tests on an 11-mile stretch of Las Vegas highway the Koenigsegg Agera RS handled an impressive average speed of 277.9 mph or 444.6 km/h.
More outstanding still is that in the second of the car’s speed record efforts, it in fact hit 284mph, recommending that on the ideal day, with the ideal wind and temperature conditions, the car still has something left in the tank.
However, the former average speed– 277.9 miles per hour (the vehicle managed to hit 272mph on its first attempt and car’s speed is computed by including both speeds together and dividing by 2), still remains a considerable improvement on the present official record– 267mph– held by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
The Supersport’s replacement, the Bugatti Chiron is yet to make any formal attempt to set a new top speed record. The company is waiting to see what the rivalry accomplishes before it heads out to the test track where it will have two benefits. The first is last mover benefit and the 2nd is that the Volkswagen‘s test track is huge and long enough to attempt and make a new record.
For its record run, Koenigsegg had to obtain an 11-mile stretch of straight highway, and the Nevada authorities were kind to close down a section of Route 160.
Similarly, Hennessey Performance has, until now, needed to make do with airport runways for its speed record efforts, which, unless the car is capable of huge levels of off the line velocity, are not long enough to enable a vehicle to hit speeds close to 300mph before it’s time to use the brakes.
Despite the fact that these top speeds are essentially academic– there is nowhere in the real life where an owner of among these vehicles might conceivably come close to attaining them– it makes for outstanding high-octane entertainment for car obsessives around the world. Taking a trip at 300mph means covering a range of 134m a second or 8km (5 miles) every minute.
