It looks like those guys over at Koenigsegg are about climb back on top of the “supercar” heap with the Regera. It’s supposed to hit 149 mph within 20 seconds, according to Car And Driver Magazine, using 1500 horsepower, a single-speed gearbox and three electric motors. Also, Koenigsegg is calling it “the first fully robotized car”-All closures can be opened and shut remotely, and
Makes a Transformer look like as clunker in comparison.
If this thing performs as advertized, I’m afraid the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport will have to step down as my Powerball dream car.
If my vast experience driving the Veyron models in Forza 4;) is to be believed, it’s only a one-trick-pony anyway, it’s sole purpose is blistering straight line speed, handling? What handling, it sucks, corners about as well as a church made of lead…
The SuperSport is marginally better, as the church is only made of aluminum (or “aluminium” (al-you-mini-mum) as they say across the pond in “yurp”
The Konegsegegegegegegegeg, OTOH (CCX AND CCX GT) handle too well, and are twitchy at speed
The thing about the Veyron (from what I’ve seen and read…sadly, mine hasn’t been delivered just yet) is not just that is goes really really fast, but that it does so in extreme comfort. From what I gather, if you’re doing ~250 MPH in a Konigsegg, McLarem, etc., you can darn well feel that you’re pretty much right on the edge; that the car is at the raw limit of its capabilities…while 250 MPH in a Veyron feels not all that different from 50 MPH.
Interestingly (or more likely not), the word “Regera” is pronounced with a soft “g” sound in Swedish, more like “Reyera”. But they named it that anyway, knowing that it will be mispronounced in English, presumably because “Regera” with a hard “g” sounds cool, like a Spanish or Italian word.
I wonder what the Swedes are calling it. Will there be massive confusion? Heads exploding from consonant-related befuddlement all around Stockholm?
Anyway. Whatever.
And, yeah, what the heck is the point of making supercars anymore, if we will no longer be able to see the Stig take them around the track? Give us our Top Gear back already!
Can you get this kind of thing up to speed running only the electric motors? I see a future for it as a murder weapon. You could use it to take out pedestrians without them ever hearing you coming. If you try to run over someone in a Veyron, they at least have a chance to hear you from a distance and get out of the way. Electric, at a squillion miles per hour? Blam, outta nowhere! Like a cruise missile.
I wonder where they can run it to set the record. Volkswagen certainly won’t let them do it at Ehra-Lessien (they own Bugatti and won’t offer up their facility for someone to break their record) and they can’t top out at the Nardo Ring. Looks like they’ll be using some salt pan somewhere, and even there they’ll have traction issues because unlike the world speed record contraptions the car is wheel-driven. Can you imagine seeing this car spinning its wheels in high gear? You may see it if they go for it on salt flats.
The Bugatti record certainly wasn’t going to last forever, and nobody really expected it to. The Veyron was more a technology demonstrator than anything else, and in reality the Hennessey Venom already beat the record, only to be ruled a modified car rather than a separate production model (which was a somewhat controversial ruling). All the hybrid technology coming on-line with the instantaneous horsepower boosts makes it much less difficult than it once was. As always, the limiting factor is tires. How do you make street-legal tires that go 270+? The Veyron’s tires go for $25,000 a set and last about as long as it takes you to get out of your driveway.
I once asked my insurance agent for a quote on a Lotus Elise. We both had quite a chuckle at the result. It was more than I usually paid for a car let alone the insurance.
