Angelholm, Sweden - Just because there are only 80 of them in existence and they cost $1.9 million (R23.4 million) each doesn’t absolve you from crash-testing your new model before beginning deliveries to customers.
So boutique supercar maker Koenigsegg turned the whole crash-testing thing into a PR exercise, posting a video of the testing of its new Regera on Instagram to celebrate reaching a million followers.
It also edited in some shots of its own pre-production testing, involving big muscular Swedes and sledgehammers, as well as concrete kerbs and other hazards of life on the streets.
The results are actually very impressive, as the car’s carbon-fibre monocoque body absorbs impact, not by crumpling but by deforming and then springing back, dissipating crash energy without crushing the occupants.
In-house test results are just as good, with big heavy hammers bouncing off the body panels without even leaving a scratch, and the car hitting a kerb on the test track hard enough to bounce it up into the air and still being driveable afterwards.
The Regera has a twin-turbo five-litre petrol V8, backed up by three electric motors for total of 1118kW, hits 100km/h off a standing start in 2,8 seconds and tops out at an electronically limited 410km/h.