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  • J.F. MUSIAL: Welcome to Angelholm, Sweden, about an

  • hour north of Copenhagen, and like most European cities,

  • it's beautiful, both the scenery and the people.

  • Sweden has had a great legacy of innovation design and

  • engineering, especially in aerospace and automotive.

  • Think of Volvo.

  • Think of Saab.

  • But what if you mixed the two, aerospace and automotive?

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: I had a lifelong dream to start

  • my car company and build cars.

  • It started when I was five years old.

  • I mean, I got the question, always, why do

  • you have this dream?

  • And I couldn't really answer.

  • I didn't really know.

  • And then I started thinking.

  • I said, when I was five years, I saw this Norwegian animated

  • stop motion movie about a bicycle repairman who built a

  • fantastic racing car up on a mountaintop in Norway, and

  • took it to LeMans and won over the establishment.

  • And I was so fascinated by this movie, I remember, when I

  • walked out of the movies, that I said to myself, that's what

  • I want to do when I grow up.

  • And when you're like five years old, you don't really

  • think about--

  • fiction or reality.

  • It's kind of intertwined.

  • And you're really impressionable.

  • So I think that was what was the triggering me to do this

  • and it's just stuck with me.

  • I was kind of pre-programmed to do this from that day on.

  • When I started the company, I was only 22.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Is that so?

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: So I've always had a keen

  • interest for engineering, technical things and worked

  • with cars and mopeds and boats and electronical things.

  • But I never really started it officially.

  • So we have, of course, a bunch of engineers here that are

  • trained engineers, but I'm kind of more like an inventor

  • or something like that.

  • So this is our development room for all the carbon fiber

  • parts that we use in our cars, so we have all the technology,

  • all the carbon fiber technology

  • proprietary to our company.

  • We started developing carbon fiber parts back in 1996 for

  • the first time.

  • So we have quite a vast experience of special

  • manufacturing carbon fiber parts for cars.

  • What you can see here is the material that is the visible

  • part of the carbon.

  • It's kind of a twill weave.

  • And there are different types of carbon fiber.

  • There are uni-directional, different weaves, different

  • directions depending on the need, the

  • stiffness, the strength.

  • We always want to optimize to keep the weight down and the

  • costs down of the carbon fiber and to make the car as light

  • as possible.

  • So the tools, I would say are either made out of--

  • the tools are large.

  • They're made out of carbon fiber to make them not too

  • cumbersome and heavy to deal with.

  • And they have exactly the same heat expansion as the part

  • itself, so there needs to be no

  • compensation for thermal expansion.

  • But smaller parts we machine most of the time straight out

  • of a billet aluminum.

  • So here, for example, we have a lamp clusters.

  • We have turbo tubing.

  • Here we have a tool for intake plenum.

  • So, then we have a lot of turbo tubes made up here.

  • So what you're seeing here is a vacuum bagging

  • process, where we--

  • we only use the most extreme type of carbon fiber material

  • which is called the pre-preg from Advanced Composite Group

  • in England.

  • And it's the same material you make--

  • well again, fighter jets or Indy cars, or F1 cars out of.

  • In our carbon fiber monocoque, we actually have aluminum

  • honeycomb inside.

  • And this is very unusual for a road car.

  • I think, well, let's say most Formula One carbon tops, they

  • use aluminum honeycomb.

  • The advantage of aluminum honeycomb, compared to other

  • types of core structures or other types of honeycomb

  • materials, is that it's very crash absorbent and it holds

  • the pieces together very well in an accident situation.

  • But the negative side is it's very expensive to work with

  • and takes a long time to implement.

  • And as far as I'm aware, we're the only road car manufacturer

  • with a carbon fiber monocoque that actually use aluminum

  • honeycomb in the monocoque.

  • So it makes it basically safer, extremely strong.

  • But it takes more time and more cost.

  • But I think, in a car like this, that's acceptable.

  • If you look at these two pieces, they almost have the

  • same stiffness, but this has the core inside.

  • And this is just solid carbon.

  • So it saves a lot of weight.

  • You maintain the stiffness, but of course, you reduce some

  • of this strength due to that it's less carbon.

  • But still, it's massively stronger than anything else of

  • the same size, shape and weight.

  • So what we're seeing here is what we call Station 2.

  • By this time, we've made all the carbon fiber bits and

  • pieces and received them from our suppliers.

  • And then we put them on this fixture and pre-fit everything

  • prior to paint, and make sure everything aligns perfectly.

  • And if there are any specific customer demands to the body

  • work, we adjust it here and custom fabricate parts, if

  • there's a need for that.

  • And then we take it all apart and send it to the paint shop.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Is everything painted here?

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: Everything is painted here.

  • I jokingly say that when people ask how much can you

  • customize, and I say, well, if you pay us enough, we can

  • build you a helicopter.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: So I must ask.

  • How old are you?

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: I'm 24.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: 24 years old and you're the test driver for

  • Koenigsegg.

  • You must love it.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: I love it.

  • I seriously do.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: So this is my first time in a Koenigsegg.

  • Let's see how it does.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: Yeah, I can show you how it runs.

  • That's the interesting bit.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Let's see how it goes.

  • And I love the fact that you have your own private runway

  • to do whatever you want.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: We need that.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: So what do we [INAUDIBLE]?

  • That's 100 kilometers an hour, right there.

  • In seventh gear, so it's a seven-speed gear box.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: And now we're on 1,600 revs.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Got it.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: So actually, on the highway, it's quite

  • economic for the car it is.

  • But you don't usually do that.

  • Here you have 1,200 horsepower.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: So then we take the parts into

  • our paint department.

  • You can actually see them spraying it.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: And is any color possible?

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: Any color is pretty

  • much possible, yes.

  • We have our own mixing room.

  • We, actually, even come up with our own paint mixtures.

  • We're very proud of our paint result because we put a lot of

  • effort into it.

  • Let's say that the thickness of the clear coat is about

  • three, four times that of a normal production car.

  • That adds a little bit of weight, but it also means you

  • get a fantastic gloss and the ability to polish for a long

  • time and polish out scratches and stuff like that.

  • And you get this very deep sensation when

  • you look at the car.

  • And there's a lot of specialist polishing companies

  • around the world that work with all these hypercars and

  • many of them tell us that they really like to work on our

  • cars because they're really the top.

  • What I noted was that people close the door like this and

  • then they want to walk away.

  • They didn't want to push it down and then push it in.

  • Because a 2-step motion is not natural.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Especially for a door.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: You're not used to that.

  • People are used to slamming the door and going.

  • And here you have to push it down and then push it in.

  • So I said, there must be a way that can

  • be done in one motion.

  • And that's when I came up with this idea that it's actually

  • not a 2-step process.

  • And most people, at the time, thought that's impossible

  • because how can you slide in and down at the same time

  • without hitting and getting the rubber seals

  • to seal and so on.

  • And that's where we have to really engineer the whole

  • entry of the car to the movement of the hinge, and the

  • movement of the hinge to the entry of the car.

  • A properly engineered part, when you look

  • at it, looks natural.

  • But to get the complex function looking simple and

  • natural, that's really difficult.

  • So we spent thousands of hours developing this hinge.

  • And it's not only the hinge, it's how it's combined with

  • the whole car.

  • It's the shape of the door.

  • It's the angle of the door seals.

  • It's how the door seals look.

  • It's how it interacts with the roof, how the door interacts

  • with the roof, how it interacts with the

  • body, when it's open.

  • So it's kind of a parallelogram here, and then

  • you have the helical cut gears here, hydraulic damper.

  • The door mounts to this portion here, so when I push

  • this in, you can see what it does.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: I'll give it a slow start because the gear

  • box isn't finished.

  • Are you ready?

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Let's go.

  • Oh God.

  • That was incredible.

  • Oh, my God.

  • That was incredible.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: So that was 300, and this engine nor gear

  • box isn't fine tuned yet.

  • So it will go better and it will shift

  • faster when it's done.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: That's the fastest I've ever been

  • [INAUDIBLE].

  • Right there.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: So this is, basically, a normal

  • chassis dyno, but what's pretty cool about it is that

  • we have the engine management hooked up

  • to this whole system.

  • So with remote keyboard, when you sit in the car, you can

  • actually program the engine and see what it's doing.

  • And on these screens, we can get the power and torque and

  • everything.

  • We can take up to about 1,500 horsepower on

  • these hydraulic brakes.

  • And we use it for tuning cars, for different types of fuel

  • for different markets.

  • For example, we had a customer in Brazil who wanted to run on

  • E100 instead of E85.

  • So we made a flex fuel for E100.

  • And then, in certain areas, they have

  • better or worse fuels.

  • We kind of buy in the local fuel, make sure the car runs

  • good on it.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Do you actually bring the fuel in?

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: We do, yes.

  • And then, of course, we have our own airfield which is

  • very, very convenient.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: For any super car manufacturer, you

  • just need that air.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: Yeah, I think, without that we

  • could not do what we're doing.

  • Because we can any--

  • 24/7, we can go out high speed testing and really push things

  • to the limit, so it's really, really convenient.

  • In the engine system, we actually have a few

  • interesting patents.

  • We're working very much with the new type of valve

  • technology.

  • It's not implemented in production, but

  • it's for the future.

  • So we have like 12 patents within the company, within the

  • Koenigsegg group.

  • And then we have turbo patents, a new type of

  • variable turbo that very much reduced back pressure when

  • connected to catalytic converters, and let's say,

  • well, puts the spool up point at lower RPM, and

  • gives better response.

  • So if we go around to the other side here, you can see

  • this little R thing here.

  • That's actually a flex fuel sensor.

  • So depending on what fuel the driver puts in the tank, it

  • comes in here and it's sensed and then the whole engine

  • management is reprogrammed, depending on what's entering

  • into the engine.

  • So the whole fuel management system is geared to handle

  • massive amounts of fuel.

  • Alcohol has less energy density, so let's say that if

  • you only would run on petrol, the pumps, injectors,

  • everything, is sized for over 2,000 horsepower.

  • But when you run on an alcohol, it's a good safety

  • margin, but we can get around 1,200.

  • We didn't realize it until recently, but this is actually

  • the most downsized engine in the world of any production

  • car engine.

  • When you think of it, it's a five liter engine and we have

  • almost 1,200 horsepower.

  • So you have like 228 horsepower per

  • liter engine volume.

  • That's 33% percent higher than any other

  • production car in the world.

  • There are 214 Newton meters of torque per liter, which I

  • don't know exactly what it equates to in foot-pounds.

  • We have six horsepower per kilo engine weight, which is

  • 100% more horsepower per kilo than the nearest other

  • production car engine.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: That's incredible how it's so

  • steady at that speed.

  • Oh, my God.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: That was 315.

  • And you don't need to hold the steering wheel when you brake

  • either because it's so stable and it's so high.

  • This is station four, here.

  • SPEAKER 1: Four, okay.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: Yes.

  • So here the monocoque comes clear coated in the areas

  • needed from the paint job.

  • And we fit a lot of wiring harnesses, electrical systems,

  • dry sump tank, oil cooler, air conditioning condenser.

  • This is kind of interesting.

  • We have a lithium iron, not ion, iron battery because it's

  • safer, instead of normal lead based batteries.

  • So it basically has half the size and a

  • third of the weight.

  • And we put it very centrally in the car, even though it

  • doesn't weigh that much anymore.

  • It's the center part of the car, to try to keep the mass

  • in the center as much as possible.

  • This is also why the fuel tanks are actually inside the

  • carbon monocoque.

  • So the fuel tanks are in here, the back, and there.

  • And it's only one piece, like a big horseshoe tank.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Oh, so they're all--

  • That's good to know.

  • They're all physically connected.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: No, you only fill

  • it up from one point.

  • It's one huge tank, like that.

  • And this is, as far as we can see, the absolutely best

  • position for a fuel tank because it's, again, central.

  • Most of it is extremely low down and it's definitely the

  • most safe area of the car.

  • It's protected by the monocoque

  • being inside the monocoque.

  • And that makes it very complex.

  • It's like, almost, a airplane fuel tank, if you consider

  • them being in the wings.

  • Even though we don't have a roof helping out as a

  • stiffening structure, as far as we are aware, we have the

  • stiffest carbon monocoque, whether it has a roof or not.

  • Because it actually has 65,000 Newton meters per degree's

  • difference.

  • And if you look at how massive these sections are, it becomes

  • understandable.

  • Of course, if you would put a fixed roof in it, it would be

  • even better, but it's still extremely high.

  • Inside there, we have the honeycomb.

  • And then you have this massive section of 21 layers of carbon

  • fiber, uni-directional in the correct direction.

  • So it just becomes extremely stiff and strong.

  • And the weight of the chassis is under 70 kilos, including

  • fuel tanks.

  • And this is also pretty extreme.

  • The windshield area and the roll bar,

  • it's all carbon fiber.

  • There aren't really any metal parts.

  • Of course, power means heat.

  • And a large portion of our market is in the hot climate

  • like the Middle East, and so on.

  • And we heard many horror stories about even famous

  • brands, big car manufacturers having

  • issues in those regions.

  • Our first customers came from that region and they said,

  • whatever you do, put as big of a water radiator that you can.

  • And we told them, well, OK, we would calculate it.

  • We need a certain size and we'll test it.

  • And they said, forget about that.

  • Put the biggest you can.

  • Everyone can [INAUDIBLE].

  • That doesn't mean anything.

  • Just put a huge one in.

  • So we managed to extend it this much from our

  • calculations.

  • We never ever had any issues.

  • Even parts like this that look standard are actually

  • specially manufactured to control

  • airflow out of the car.

  • This is just a water bottle, but it's our own.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Very cool, thank you, Robert.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: You're welcome.

  • I could show you some [INAUDIBLE] as well.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: Sure, why not?

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: That was 220.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: 220 sideways.

  • You are insane.

  • You have the best job in the entire g-d world.

  • Robert, you really are--

  • at 24 years old, you are one of the luckiest people to ever

  • face this earth.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: I know.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: You're very lucky.

  • Thank you so much, Robert.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: You're welcome.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: That was such a pleasure.

  • I've never been a car that is that fast at

  • spin and in the turns.

  • It's incredible.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: The gear box is partially

  • developed by ourselves.

  • It's manufactured by a company in Italy, called Sima, and

  • we've developed our own electronic differential.

  • On the side, you can see this black cover.

  • So we can actually adapt the differential locking

  • depending, from our own issues, depending on setting

  • of the driver and driver behavior and track and so on.

  • And then, we have here, it's not mounted right now, but in

  • here and it sits hydraulic clutch.

  • We call this the first single input shaft

  • dual clutch gear box.

  • When we shift, at the same time as we open the clutch

  • here, we have this hydraulic clutch sitting on the same

  • shaft, which works in the opposite direction.

  • It actually cloaks us against the casing to slow down the

  • input shaft so that we can push the synchros much harder

  • because it's already pre-synchronized.

  • So it basically takes out 2/3 of the synchronization time.

  • So it's not that it's zero shifting time,

  • but it's close to.

  • And it's so close that you hardly can notice it anymore.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: I always thought it was very cool, this little

  • gauge on the side.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: Right, yes, yes.

  • This is, of course, also completely custom.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: So whose idea was this?

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: That was my idea because we needed

  • a custom expansion bottle and it's pretty much hidden.

  • And normally these are made in plastic, but it didn't really

  • make sense.

  • We used to have one in plastic earlier on, but you would have

  • to look from the back and you couldn't see it.

  • And we wanted to fabricate the one that was really more

  • optimized to the shape of the car

  • And then I came up with--

  • you can actually see the level through a tube

  • with a glass on it.

  • And here, you can see also a triplex suspension which is

  • one of my ideas I had.

  • And the reason for it, basically, is that the more

  • power we got--

  • Well, OK, in the engine room you saw the wishbones.

  • And we decided early on not to have anti-squat geometry

  • because we have very stiff springs.

  • The car was light and it didn't squat very much and we

  • want a little bit of squat for traction.

  • But as the power increased over the years, the car

  • started squatting a bit more and more, and to a degree, we

  • felt it was a little bit too much with the

  • latest power level.

  • So instead of building in an anti-squat geometry into the

  • suspension, which has downsides, it actually upsets

  • other parts of the suspension.

  • I came up with this idea that we put in an anti-squat damper

  • instead, which we call the triplex suspension.

  • So when it squat, it actually pushes from both sides, and it

  • means double the speed compared to the

  • normal shock absorber.

  • So it calms down the squat, but it doesn't, in cornering,

  • do anything.

  • You just go sideways.

  • Unless you hit something with one wheel, it starts doing it

  • a little bit.

  • So it's about fine tune.

  • It's kind of a new dimension, another dimension of shock

  • absorbing compared to just having two separate ones.

  • It adds a little bit of weight but it controls the squat and

  • it maintains a very clean, true suspension geometry.

  • You can only drive really fast if you feel safe and it's easy

  • to control.

  • So you can see how very calm it is with

  • this enormous power.

  • It's totally controlled.

  • When we did this world record in braking and acceleration,

  • you can do that record, basically, with a finger on

  • the steering wheel, full break from 300.

  • It doesn't do anything like this.

  • It's just track solid, yeah.

  • ROBERT BERWANSKI: I got it.

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: This is also our own product.

  • We even go in and engineer all the switch gears and

  • everything inside these paddles because it needs to

  • have the right feel.

  • I want kind of a trigger feel.

  • You can't go halfway.

  • It's either you've pushed it or you haven't, so it's a very

  • clear, distinctive feel to it.

  • And then, underneath this leather, it's actually a foam

  • core to make a soft grip.

  • And underneath that, it's a hollow carbon structure made

  • in one piece.

  • This is what we call alignment PDI test driving.

  • Actually this station goes all the way over there because

  • that's the washing area.

  • We have wheel alignment, corner waiting and then a test

  • track outdoors.

  • Here we take care of our test cars, our prototypes.

  • We have four service mechanics in here and they also service

  • customer cars, for example, where we have customers where

  • we have no dealers, we either fly these guys out there to

  • service the car or they fly their car here to

  • service their car.

  • But usually when they take the car here, they

  • also upgrade them.

  • We have upgrade programs for the CCA test, the CCR, the

  • CCX, the CCXR.

  • Basically, you can upgrade a CCX to a CCXR.

  • And a gear 2 and a gear R, a CCA test to CCR

  • engine, if you like.

  • And there is some cross, even though there's big differences

  • between a CCR and a CCX, it's actually a completely new

  • chassis and completely new body, and a completely new

  • electronic system.

  • They look similar but are different.

  • But some systems can be adopted backwards, so we keep

  • the earlier cars really fresh and alive and modern by

  • implementing the latest technology we have for them.

  • And as it's being done here at the factory, it's not

  • bastardizing them.

  • It's actually original equipment, but it's making

  • them stay alive and fresh.

  • We started producing cars in 2002 and now, it's 2012, when

  • we'll build over 100 cars this year.

  • But in 2002, we built three cars.

  • In 2003, we built five cars.

  • In 2004, it was seven, eight.

  • So it's, of course, grown over the years, but on an

  • average, around 12.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: So in this year, how many do you

  • think you will produce?

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: Hopefully, a little bit more.

  • Yeah.

  • You saw the steering wheel down there and we first

  • designed it to print out, feel it.

  • And then I had some ideas about this shape, so I

  • reshaped this by hand.

  • And then we have a laser scanner, so we scan that back

  • in, get into the computer, and then print out another one and

  • test it again until we're satisfied.

  • So we can go from 3D CAD to physical model, modify it by

  • hand, putting it back in 3D CAD with a hand modifications,

  • re-engineering it, and then out again.

  • And then OK, a couple of iterations

  • and then we're done.

  • So it's really nice to touch and feel and see in reality.

  • It really changes everything.

  • If you only do it on the screen you will never end up

  • exactly how you want it in the end.

  • You have to have this fast, simple process of going from

  • virtual reality into reality and then back again.

  • I found a fantastic factory, 10 minutes away from here,

  • which was kind of a rebuilt old farmhouse with the marble

  • floors and thatched roof and it was like

  • 20,000 square feet.

  • It was perfect, and we started there.

  • However, in 2003, we had a fire, so the building got

  • pretty much destroyed.

  • We managed to save most of the equipment and the parts while

  • it was in the fire.

  • We just got everything out.

  • And then this was still a military area, so the mayor

  • came to the site.

  • It was a Saturday, and we were all suited up and said, well,

  • we managed to get most of it out, but now we don't have a

  • building anymore.

  • And he said, I'll talk to some people at the military base.

  • So we actually got into one of the buildings, next door here,

  • that was already cleared out because they

  • were shutting down.

  • And that, ironically, was the fire station, used to be the

  • fire station.

  • And we first planned to rebuild our first factory

  • because we really liked it.

  • But when we got all the plans for it and how long it would

  • take, it would take one to one half year to get it done.

  • We would have to set up temporarily here.

  • And we did that at the first site.

  • And we realized, if we're going to make this work, and

  • start producing cars and then move again, we're never going

  • to get it going.

  • And then we had a look here.

  • There were still airplanes in here, and he said, maybe this

  • could be something for you.

  • It's not a quaint and elegant place we used to have, which

  • we really liked, but it's practical.

  • And of course, people think, well, then you got access to

  • the test track, which is not true, because we already had

  • access to the test track.

  • Actually the gate to the test track is closer to where our

  • old factory was than where this is.

  • So that had nothing to do with it because it was just next

  • door anyway.

  • But it's practical.

  • It's nice.

  • It has the heritage of the airplanes.

  • So we've got the ghost.

  • When we moved in here, we got the ghost.

  • J.F. MUSIAL: That was going to be my final question.

  • What is the ghost?

  • CHRISTIAN VON KOENIGSEGG: Yeah, that ghost was on that

  • wall when we came in here, and you see these lines, here on

  • the floor, it's where they taxied in the airplanes.

  • And that's actually the symbol for this squadron that used to

  • be here, which was the oldest airplane squadron or fighter

  • squadron in Sweden, from the '30s or something.

  • And they were called the ghost because before, they had a

  • kind of modern aviation electronics and so on.

  • They just flew on their senses and they took off before dawn.

  • And people could only hear them and not see them.

  • And then they came back after dusk, so they heard these

  • airplanes but didn't see them.

  • And of course, airplane was quite a new thing then.

  • So they were called the Ghost.

  • So they have adopted this symbol.

  • And for some reason, very early on, they adopted the

  • slogan, the show must go on.

  • And they wrote that on their airplane, in English even.

  • Then the show stopped.

  • And we came here and some of the people working there with

  • airplanes said, please can't you continue our tradition?

  • Put our ghost on your card.

  • Then the show will go on.

  • And we said OK, yes.

  • So we said, every car we will build here we will put the

  • ghost on to honor the squadron.

  • So that's the story.

J.F. MUSIAL: Welcome to Angelholm, Sweden, about an

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