Koenigsegg CC850: back to the roots

Koenigsegg seizes the Monterey Car Week to launch the anniversary model. In terms of design, the CC850 mainly harks back to the CC8S, Koenigsegg’s first car. The CC850’s headlights and taillights, in particular, are reminiscent of that first hypercar, although the headlights have a different layout and the taillights are rectangular rather than round in shape. In silhouette, the CC850 resembles the CC8S, but it is about 17 centimeters longer than its grandfather. As with the CC8S, the roof of the CC850 can also be stowed in the front of the car.

Koenigsegg CC850 next to the CC8S (left).

Furthermore, the CC850 has the same forward-hinged doors as the CC8S and later Koenigseggs. Where the CC850 remains fairly faithful to the CC8S in terms of appearance, it looks more like the Jesko under the hood. The hypercar is powered by a 5.0-liter V8 with two turbos that produces 1,185 horsepower with normal fuel. If you throw E85 in the fuel tank, the power source delivers 1,385 hp. At a car weight of 1,385 kilograms, this means that you have a horsepower-to-weight ratio of 1 to 1. That is of course a bizarre amount of power, but compared to the 1,600 hp strong Jesko, the CC850 is somewhat tweaked.

That ‘squeezing’ has a reason, however: the transmission. The CC850 builds on the nine-speed ‘Light Speed ​​Transmission’ with nine gears and multiple clutch plates, but with a twist. Where the gearbox in the Jesko can only be operated manually with flippers behind the steering wheel, the gearbox in the CC850 can also be used as a full-fledged manual gearbox with clutch pedal in addition to an automatic mode! Koenigsegg simulates the operation of a manual gearbox, where, according to Christian von Koenigsegg, you actually operate the clutch with the clutch pedal when you put it in manual mode. In fact, he says the CC850 will actually stall if you don’t operate the clutch properly.

The manual transmission of the Koenigsegg CC850

In manual mode, the CC850 has six gears instead of nine. However, you can choose which transmission ratios you want with the nine gears of the transmission. So you have different transmission ratios for the track than for the road. If you don’t feel like changing gears, you can also put it in an automatic mode and you don’t have to use the clutch pedal. According to Koenigsegg, it is the first time a manufacturer has designed a manual gearbox in this way and it is also the fastest production car with manual transmission in the world. The brand just does not yet tell how fast the CC850 is.

Koenigsegg has not yet announced a price for the CC850. However, only 50 copies of the hypercar will be built. So you can count on it costing several million euros.