Koenigsegg, Rimac and Hennessey flat out on track... in each others' cars

Valuable cargo loaded, I head off around this beautiful track wedged into a furrow of hills an hour north of San Francisco. Grab handles are grabbed, there’s a bit of joshing from the back seats, but I manage to keep the BMW on the black stuff, show the lads the potential hazards and traps among Sonoma’s off camber downhill corners and sketchy brake points, then bring them back to the pits to climb into cars with vastly more power than a nervously driven SUV.

Photography: Greg Pajo

We’d asked each to turn up with a car of their own they’d like the others to drive. John Hennessey bought along his latest carbon tubbed Venom F5 Revolution. No Lotus DNA in there anymore, it’s a narrow edgy dart of a car, sending 1,817 furious, raucous horsepower to the rear wheels through a seven-speed gearbox. If the bosses were from any other car companies, we’d be attaching strong warnings, but when the least well equipped car on track is a 1,578bhp Koenigsegg Jesko Attack, it’s safe to assume they’re used to the effects of stratospheric outputs. Mate, just to be on the safe side (rather than to rub in the fact he’s the boss of two companies – he’s just not that sort of person), rocked up with both a Rimac Nevera and a Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport. There’s also a brand new Nevera R in a pit garage for us to have a look at.

He asks if I’d like to drive it. I sniff a world exclusive, until his test driver Miro Zrnčević steps in and reminds him they’re not nearly finished with development yet. Not to worry, there are plenty of other distractions lurking, since CvK has also bought along a CC850 and Koenigsegg’s racing unicorn, the CC GT.

The plan is simple. Each of them has bought their chief test driver along to sit in the car and help the other bosses get the most out of it. That’s not a task I envy any of them. Not that I think they’ve got anything to worry about. Hennessey isn’t that fussed about fast lapping. “All I want to do,” he says to Koenigsegg test driver Markus Lundh in his Texan drawl, “is get it straight and bury the throttle.” Christian has always been an engineer at heart rather than a driver, but Mate... well, Mate grew up drifting. He loves driving.

On cold tyres, John exits the uphill pitlane in the Jesko and gives it the full ribs with BBQ sauce. “Oh yeah, she’s got some scoot,” he remarks. He likes the neutral balance through the esses and endless torque reserves. “Koenigsegg’s the real deal – you knew that, now I know that,” he explains back at the pits, admitting to having been a little bit intimidated. Some admission from the guy making the fastest things in Texas besides SpaceX. “If only we had a runway or somewhere else to stretch its legs...”

Meanwhile, Mate Rimac is keen not to appear overawed by the lumpy, cantankerous idle of the E85 fuelled Hennessey, and sends it out of the pitlane asking his minder how he switches into manual mode. “Single clutch? No brake booster? What’s maximum rpm?” His brain is in full detective mode. Then he squeezes the gas, and the grin comes. “This thing is raw!” he shouts over the hard edged V8. “It’s a monster truck engine in a go-kart. Crazy – you have to tame the monster.”

You’d hope he would stagger clear of the American car in a gibber, but he actually takes an annoyingly cool stroll to the waiting Koenigsegg while Christian ensconces himself in the quiet calm of the Nevera and begins analysing the brake pressure required to engage friction braking over regen. Satisfied with the maths, he clogs it. “That’s crazy – very cool,” he grimaces with neck muscles straining. “I think Mate is catching me,” he laughs, spying the car’s creator in the mirrors. Naturally he floors it, and neatly catches a big stab of oversteer as tester Miro slots the Nevera into its infamous Drift mode.

Meanwhile Mate is bullying Koenigsegg’s tester into turning off the auto shift so he can take manual control and is troubling the upper reaches of the rev band. “The gearbox is crazy. I need to get used to how fast it revs – maybe we should keep auto shift on! The ratios are so short... for a turbocharged car it’s crazy how fast the response is.” He’s pushing hard enough to get the front nibbling into understeer and then taking one hand off the wheel to shield his eyes from the sun, like Ari Vatanen in Climb Dance. And asking Markus to wind back the traction control. Why isn’t everyone’s boss this much of a dude?

While CvK gets cosy in the F5, John Hennessey tries Croatia’s drag strip king. “The motors have a cool sound,” he notes after a few surges. “It’s got plenty of power.” Miro insists he try a full bore launch. “Oh yeah – that’s awesome,” John grins after reaching 60mph in less than two seconds. “You could daily a car like that – for me I’d feel a little scared to go deep into a corner just because of the weight, but overall it’s very refined and the straight line speed is crazy.”

“Wow, there’s no power braking?” Christian exclaims at the first big stop in the Venom. You know a car is raw when it’s shocking CvK. From the onboard cameras it appears he’s struggling with tardy downshifts, but loving the sledgehammer of power that renders changing out of fifth mostly redundant. He doesn’t say much behind the wheel – concentration takes precedence over commentary. “It’s got old school brutal shifting – that brings back fun memories,” he says with a hint of humblebrag. “But yeah, I like it. Really fast, stiff chassis, very predictable, nice steering feel.”

It’s the end of the session. Well, there’s about five minutes left before the track closes. Mate and Christian have been discussing the Nevera’s torque vectoring and how easy it is to skid about in a 1,888bhp 4WD electric car. The next thing I know, they’ve jumped back in the Nevera. “I’m just going to give Christian a demonstration,” says Mate as the Nevera peels off up the pitlane. Rimac’s test driver shakes his head. “This is the trouble with Mate. He’s an enthusiast. He loves driving, it’s getting him to stop that’s the hard part.”

But this, from our perspective, is the best possible news. We constantly hear how car companies are run by blank faced suits concerned with nothing except the bottom line. Not at this level. Mate, Christian and John are car guys. It’s the product that matters above all. They love what they do and what they create. Now it’s time to ask them the questions you want answered.

The debrief

Top Gear: What are your customers telling you about electric hypercars? Is it possible that the electric supercar’s honeymoon period is already over?

Mate Rimac: I wish that people had the opportunity to experience what I experienced today – the Nevera is an awesome car even here on the track with these other cars. Of course I’m biased, but it’s actually giving you such a different experience. For me it’s really about offering something special to customers. People who have a Nevera love it and they use it a lot, maybe even more than their other hypercars. It’s not easy to be the first on the market with a new brand. The Nevera is the bestselling electric hypercar out there – we think in the end it will change the market.

Christian von Koenigsegg: There is a resistance in the market for EV at this level because people like the sound. And they’re afraid of battery life and afraid of the weight because they’re usually heavier if it’s a big battery pack in there. What do our customers tell us? The reason why we started developing electric propulsion systems was we were thinking we need to go electric because that’s where the market is going. And then it was really like, “No, it’s OK. You can do hybrid but don’t just give us full electric cars. We drive that on a daily basis. They’re good, they’re fast, they’re practical, they do everything we want. But for the weekend warrior, for the fun times, I want this dialogue with my car. I want to speak to it, I want to ‘argue’ with an exciting engine, and have a lower weight.

John Hennessey: Our customers are predominantly from the US. Maybe 30 of the 40 cars we’ve sold have been in the US, and 10 outside the US – and none of them want electrification. They want pure internal combustion. I do have clients that have some of Mate’s and Christian’s cars, and obviously other cars as well. But again, what our clients tell us is they want a sensation, they want all the sensory inputs that come from not only the sound, the vibration, even the smell from internal combustion. And again, we’re not alone. I mean, I’ve been modifying cars for 34 years, all internal combustion. We took a look at the EV market – we actually had designed this six-wheel-drive crazy concept ‘Project Deep Space’. And as we’re showing it to our clients and dealers, they all basically told us, “That’s interesting. Maybe down the road, but right now we want you to keep building internal combustion".

The big number that needs to fall is 500 [kph – 311mph]. And I think all three cars can do it

TG: We haven’t seen any of your latest models go for a vmax run. So when are we going to see a new 300+mph top speed record?

JH: I’m just waiting for Christian to get finished on tyre development for us!

CvK: I’m waiting for Bugatti to finish tyre development for us! I guess we’re all waiting for Michelin...

MR: I guess the big number that needs to fall is 500 [kph – 311mph]. And I think all three cars can do it.

JH: It’s just a matter of when and where. 

CvK: I mean we have the aero, we’ve tested it, and we know the powertrain can push beyond 500... it’s down to having the tyre to be able to plan the attempt for us to make it safe. I think if it’s only a tyre made for record breaking, it’s less exciting because then the customers can’t really buy the whole package. 

MR: You can’t actually do that because when you make a tyre, there’s a certain investment behind it and you can spread that investment among hundreds of cars that you’ll make.

JH: We believe the Michelin Cup 2R tyres are capable of running the speeds. Every car has a different downforce parameters and load sensitivity. We’re probably going to do a test with Michelin, I think [Bugatti] have done this before on the aircraft tyre dyno, where they can spin the tyres up to 300mph. For us really it’s more a matter of the right venue. Runways are just basically very short. So you’d have to have a very hard launch, very hard acceleration, get up to the speed and then get on the brakes before you run out of runway.

So even if one of our cars could hit 500kph on a runway, that’s not going to be the vmax. So then we’re basically relegated to a highway which [Koenigsegg] did successfully, but I think it’s just dangerous. It’s super narrow and you can have a deer decide to cross the road when you’re going at 280 miles an hour. So I think for us we want to do it on a runway. Texas is another possibility. We’ve done some projects with the state of Texas where they’ve let us test on new highways.

But again, it’s kind of the aspect of not being able to control animals. And I’ve hit birds when going almost 200 miles per hour! There’s big bragging rights if somebody gets [over 300mph], and again, Bugatti hit 304.7 but only in one direction, so a two-way average would be nice. I’ve got to bust your balls a little bit, Mate!

TG: What are your thoughts on the rise of the restomod? Is it a good thing for the car world or does it mean we’re running out of original ideas?

CvK: Good question. I mean Singer, I’ve seen them at The Quail now for probably 10 years. They really pioneered the popularity among the broader audience and have done a fantastic job at it. It’s a difficult question, right? Does it take away from the purity of the original or is it the other way around? I dunno, difficult to say. I don’t know what my take is on it actually.

JH: I’m a big fan. Whether it’s American muscle or whether it’s some of the classic Italians, I think it’s a very cool art form. I think from a business perspective, with the significant investment of manufacturing, taking a car that’s maybe 25 years older that you can source from around the world and it’s got a VIN plate and a title and you can add all this modern design and technology to it: I think it’s great. I just wish I could afford more of ’em. I mean the really nice ones are half a million dollars to $2 million and I’d have one of each. We’ve looked at doing restomods in our modification business – if I had additional staff and resources, I won’t say what cars we would want to restomod, but I’ve got a few ideas...

MR: I love restomods as well. Actually I’m very close also with the Singer guys. I have a Turbo on order – I like these kind of cars. For me, my journey started with an E30 3 Series, I always wanted an E30 M3 and luckily now I could afford one. I love driving that car and I love looking at it. It’s beautiful.

TG: But does it live up to the fantasy?

MR: Oh no. Even the most basic cars today are better at steering or braking or even acceleration than that thing. I would love to have a restomod E30 with a V10. That’s one project I want to do.

CvK: But I think it shows the lack of desirability within the modern car space. I think what’s driving this is that pretty much everyone is looking back to the good old days. And that, I think, is what disturbs me a bit. We should be able to create that feeling and emotion with who we are today and what we do today. And it just seems to be lacking somehow, given that all of that needs to happen.

TG: Speaking of hosing away huge amounts of money, we know that you’re all passionate engineers, we can see that you’re all incredibly competitive. But why don’t we see Hennessey, Koenigsegg or Rimac/Bugatti competing at the top level of elite motorsport? 

JH: We talked about that earlier and something that Mate said that totally resonated with me was the fact that there’s too many rules in motorsport! He’s talking about building this crazy single seater, that could run the Nordschleife in four and a half minutes or something like that?

TG: Wait, what?

MR: We want to build a special car. It’ll be very fast. But first of all, why not racing? So everyone is asking me that because my background was racing and for me racing was always like war for cars. Because in war you develop technologies in fast cycles and that’s what racing for me is about. And people say, yeah, but you have those rules. So it’s more about the drivers. But if you’re really interested in purely the human aspect, there are hundreds of pure human sports disciplines.

So why motorsport, which is around technology and the machine as well – why ignore the machine factor? Motorsport existed to develop new technologies to compete against each other and then trickle down to the road to have some relevance. Today it doesn’t have any relevance, it’s just about the rules and it’s more of a lawyer’s game of how you get around the rules.

CvK: The really annoying part is ‘balance of performance’. When I started Koenigsegg, I built the first CC8S according to the GT1 regulations with the ambition of going GT1 racing. You were not allowed to be over 1,100kg and depending on your engine type, you got a certain size of restrictor to limit you to not have much more than 600 horsepower. Everything else, you could be very freely inventive about competing with technology and if you won, you were not bogged down by weight or other kind of balanced performance as long as you had your correct restriction for your engine.

MR: But which motorsport today has torque vectoring, active aerodynamics, active suspension, or even stuff like active camber? None.

JH: So let’s start our own racing series! 

CvK: I mean there’s such an opportunity I think for a new way of thinking about racing with much more freedom. You can put up boundaries which make it not go dangerously crazy, but still have a completely different level of freedom.

JH: There’s a lot of politics, a lot of sandbagging, there’s a lot of b******** in racing. But even with that being said, me personally, I would still like to build a car that could compete at Le Mans at some point. I think there’s still something romantic and special about Le Mans. And I don’t disagree with anything you guys have said, but I do feel like in some forms of racing, yeah there’s the politics and there’s the BOP and there’s all that, but there’s still something cool about it. I mean if you win Le Mans, I think that’s really, really cool.

TG: To round off our chat, could you identify one element from each others’ cars that impressed you so much you’d like to take it home with you tonight and install it on one of your cars?

JH: The Rimac’s daily drivability, and the Koenigsegg’s balance of aggression with drivability.

CvK: The ease of use and accessibility of power in the Nevera is truly amazing. And the rawness of the experience and the ‘visceralness’ of the F5 was amazing. It makes your blood boil – and I think we have a lot of that at Koenigsegg.

MR: For me, the most memorable thing was the F5’s idling. When the car rocks it’s like there is an animal behind you. It’s crazy. And from the Jesko, the gearbox. I have to say, when we started to develop the Bugatti Tourbillon, I went to Christian because we were looking at using the Koenigsegg light speed gearbox. We have this openness: Rimac did the battery for the Regera and I’m happy also to use some stuff from Christian. So maybe one day we’ll use his gearbox somewhere...