Koenigsegg breaks world’s fastest production car record with 277.9mph run

A Koenigsegg Agera RS took the record for the world’s fastest street legal car yesterday, recording a 277.9mph average over two runs in Nevada.

The hypercar was driven on two runs in opposite directions of an 11-mile stretch of closed public highway between Las Vegas and Pahrump. The Swedish manufacturer’s test driver Niklas Lilja achieved speeds of 284.55mph and 271.19mph, resulting in a world-record average of 277.9mph.

Using a customer car, the Swedish manufacturer confirmed on Twitter that it had received permission to close the road for two days, but needed just three runs – one sighting run, then a full-chat effort in each direction – to break the old record.

The previous record was held by the Venom GT, built by Texas-based car tuning company Hennessey. It achieved a two-way average of 270.49mph on Valentine’s Day in 2014. At the time, it narrowly took the record from the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which had recorded a 269.86mph time.

Before confirming that “it was over by lunch on day one”, the brand responded to journalists on Twitter to confirm that it had completed the run using the “standard fitment” Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 tyres.

In video footage uploaded to YouTube, the car looks remarkably stable during the run, and smashed through the previous record with little fuss.

All eyes will now be on Bugatti, after its recent release of the Chiron supercar. Having held the record with the Veyron until 2014, the French manufacturer is likely cooking up plans to show what its new 1,480bhp high-performance car can do.