The world record for the fastest production car has been broken by Swedish company Koenigsegg with its Agera RS over the weekend. The hypercar hit an average speed of 277.9 miles per hour, beating the previous record of 267.8 mph.
The Agera RS achieved the record-breaking average speed during two runs. The car was driven by factory test driver Niklas Lilja on a closed, 11-mile section of Route160 between Las Vegas and Pahrump, Nevada, that the company paid to shut down.
Lilja pushed the car to up to 284.55 mph in one direction, and then back the other direction, to speeds of up to 271.9 mph while going against strong headwind and fighting an uphill gradient. "I wasn't nervous," Lilja told TopGear "The only hesitation was over the tyres, as you always know that something could happen."
"Driving the road at 100mph, it was very quiet and smooth," the driver added. "But at 280mph plus, it's really quite bumpy. Going downhill, with a tailwind, I was at the rev limiter on the first proper run (284.55mph) so I knew I couldn't do anymore."
The Agera's average speed broke the record set by Bugatti with its Chiron in a 2010 run on the Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany. It also trumped the one-way run of the Hennessey Venom GT in 2014 at the Kenned Space center, which was pegged at an average speed of 270.49 mph.
The Agera is powered by a 5-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine, which produces an output of 1,360 horsepower and 1,011 pound-feet of torque. The car also recently broke another record of the Bugatti Chiron by posting an acceleration record of 249 mph from standstill in 36.44 seconds.
However, Koenigsegg's new records are already being challenged by the recently unveiled Venom F5 from Hennessey. The car is considered the spiritual successor of the Venom GT.
The Venom F5 is said to be able to reach speeds of 300 mph, however it has not done that yet. Hennessey is still working with tire manufacturers to develop tires that can withstand the forces involved at the speeds that the hypercar can reach.
