Koenigsegg Jesko sets new Laguna Seca lap record
Enough with the perfectly preened lawns and spotless supercars - time for some real speed
You wouldn’t be alone in finding all the pomp and pageantry of Monterey Car Week - or certainly the bits that are best known - a little stifling. So here’s something to rouse you from your stupor, proof that exciting stuff does happen on four wheels in California during August. Koenigsegg has set a new lap record for homologated production cars at Laguna Seca with a Jesko Attack. And, as might be expected, it’s flippin fast.
1:24.86 is a little hard to contextualise with a track not as famous as some others for records, but it means the ‘egg is almost three seconds faster than a McLaren Senna (1:27.62) around the lap. Around a sub-90-second lap, that’s enormous. More importantly for record setting boasts, the Jesko pipped the 1:25.44 laid down by a Czinger 21C in 2021. So the definition of homologated road car is really being stretched to breaking point, yes, though the numbers don’t lie. Nothing else even comes close to that pair that can also be used on the public highway: a fully Weissach Packed Turbo GT Taycan was 1:27.87, a 991 GT2 RS 1:28.30.
Still, consider the Jesko’s spec and it’s not entirely surprising. Attack is the track focused version of the 1600hp V8 hypercar (where Absolut is the top speed car), with up to a tonne of downforce and hollow carbon wheels. The lap itself is a blur of revs and gearchanges, distances all those vids and games taught you were between corners just vanishing. Interestingly it’s been claimed by Christian von Koenigsegg that neither car nor test driver Markus Lundh had ever been to Laguna Seca before - some achievement for the first time. Makes you wonder if they could go faster still, in fact. And where the next record might come from.
That Spurling creation will probably be along soon to break this, or a rimac, or something else, there’s a gluttony of hypercars right now that are obliterating everything but for me not creating the excitement it should be.
That Spurling creation will probably be along soon to break this, or a rimac, or something else, there’s a gluttony of hypercars right now that are obliterating everything but for me not creating the excitement it should be.
That Spurling creation will probably be along soon to break this, or a rimac, or something else, there’s a gluttony of hypercars right now that are obliterating everything but for me not creating the excitement it should be.
I’d also take the T.50, or perhaps a Singer/Tuthill 911, if my numbers came in tomorrow.
Shifts seemed to get slower and slower, so maybe carrying an issue.
Brakes looked very, very impressive though.
I've seen the Jesko in the flesh a few times now, and it is absolutely stunning. Especially in that blue. It's a proper ICE car with all the associated noises, and despite the claim from one poster that an EV is nearly as fast, this is 3 seconds faster in a relatively short lap. That is a lifetime. And unlike the McMurtry, it's a proper full-sized car.
The engineering that goes into them is next level; a 9 speed gearbox with a clutch for each gear so it can jump to the one with the best performance on-demand. The high speed version of the Jesko, the Absolut, just set various acceleration/deceleration records too.
PHers should be getting much more enthusiastic about stuff like this. Most of us can't dream of ever owning one but the world is very much better for people like CvK - very much one of "us" - making cars like this and setting records for the fun of it. With a massive Euromillions win I'd be straight on the phone to them.
I've seen the Jesko in the flesh a few times now, and it is absolutely stunning. Especially in that blue. It's a proper ICE car with all the associated noises, and despite the claim from one poster that an EV is nearly as fast, this is 3 seconds faster in a relatively short lap. That is a lifetime. And unlike the McMurtry, it's a proper full-sized car.
The engineering that goes into them is next level; a 9 speed gearbox with a clutch for each gear so it can jump to the one with the best performance on-demand. The high speed version of the Jesko, the Absolut, just set various acceleration/deceleration records too.
PHers should be getting much more enthusiastic about stuff like this. Most of us can't dream of ever owning one but the world is very much better for people like CvK - very much one of "us" - making cars like this and setting records for the fun of it. With a massive Euromillions win I'd be straight on the phone to them.
I cant comprehend the remarks on it being a scruffy lap when the car has 1600hp and weigh 1400kg's, they are an absolute handful too and the fact it only looks marginally scruffy to some, shows the skill of Markus in my opinion.
I get the remarks about the cars and their value being so far removed from reality but it doesnt stop it being impressive, surely!
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