SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram
Search
Close this search box.

Watch a Koenigsegg annihilate the production record at Spa-Francorchamps

22 July, 2015

 

The crazy team at Koenigsegg have underlined the sublime performance of their new Agera One:1 by thrashing the production lap record of Belgium’s illustrious Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Clocking in at 2min 32.14, the Koenigsegg beats its nearest rival by almost six seconds. Check out the memorable on-board video below:

This is the second time that Koenigsegg have had a crack at the Spa record, following a successful attempt in June where they managed to set a lap record of 2min 33.26s — beating the previous benchmark set by a McLaren P1 — a car New Zealand Classic Car magazine featured earlier in 2015.

What makes official Koenigsegg test driver Robert Serwanski’s lap particularly impressive is how he is forced to weave through dense traffic from start to finish. Yet despite the conditions, the One:1 manages to hit 270kph on the approach to Eau Rouge, before reaching a mind-boggling 320kph just before piling on the brakes at the bus stop.

Brand founder Christian von Koenigsegg had initially suggested that the One:1 would try and take down the lap record at Germany’s infamous Nürburgring. But after a speed ban was imposed at the facility due to safety concerns, Spa was the most logical replacement playground for the brand to set their 1341hp monster loose.

The record has been toppled just as motorsport royalty from around the world prepare for the 24 Hours of Spa, held on July 25–26. Included in that list is Kiwi V8 Supercar ace Shane van Gisbergen, as well as Australian motorsport legend Craig Lowndes.

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”