Canada
One of the questions that comes up again and again…. and again on our Facebook and Twitter accounts is this: When is Koenigsegg going to take a car to the Nürburgring?
As it’s a little tiring to answer it again and again…. and again, we figured it might be time to do one comprehensive answer that we can point people to as the questions comes up in the future.
Many of you will know that we had plans to take the One:1 to the Nürburgring in the summer of 2015. Those plans were cut short when ‘Ring management put speed restrictions in place in response to a racing accident there earlier in the year. Several sections of the track became speed limited and while we might have coped with a few of them, there was one long section where we would expect our car to reach close to 400km/h. As such, a limit of 250km/h wasn’t going to cut it. Then they banned lap record attempts outright so the limits became a moot point anyway.
Those conditions still exist right now. Speed limits are in place and record attempts are not allowed by order of management.
In August this year, Nürburgring management announced a series of planned alterations to the track that had been approved by the German authorities and the FIA so that speed limits could be lifted. Those alterations are physical works that have to be done at various places around the facility. The works consist mostly of changes/additions to safety fencing, with one proposed work to smooth out the track surface at a section known as Flugplatz.
Those works were scheduled to start in November 2015 and from what we’re able to gather from information online, works were planned for completion by around March 2016.
The basic answer to everyone’s question, therefore, is that no company will be driving fast times around the Nürburgring until at least some time after March 2016 when the works are completed, and presumably, when the track is inspected and approved by the German authorities and the FIA. We assume that all that would need to happen before restrictions can be lifted.
At Koenigsegg, the issue is made slightly more difficult because of the need for a suitable car. If we had gone to the Nürburgring this year we would have used chassis #106, which was our factory development car. That car has now been sold to a private owner, a contract that had been in place for some time. We would therefore need to get access to a suitable vehicle for a Nürburgring campaign. This is by no means an impossible hurdle, but it’s worth mentioning.
Do we want to go to the Nurburgring? Yes.
Do we want to go in 2016? Yes.
When will we do it? That depends on us getting the use of a suitable vehicle but most of all, it depends on when the speed restrictions are lifted – which is something we have no control over.
As told by Stephen Wade/ Koenigsegg
