Thanks to a boost from the last decade, Koenigsegg now builds a few dozen cars each year and likes to make everything in-house, down to the software. So, how does such a small carmaker manage to stay under the spotlights in a world where new performance vehicles fly in at a dizzying pace? Sure, these Swedes set world records like it’s nothing. But there must be other parts to their strategy. You know, stuff like the timingโearlier this month, the carmaker held the first najor public sighting of a Jesko featuring the KNC (Koenigsegg Naked Carbon) option that will instantly set your heart racing.
When the Angelholm-based automaker introduced the Jesko in 2019, nobody knew that the car industryโor the whole worldโwould go through more than one crisis. So we have to fast-forward to October last year to discuss the first Jesko customer car being delivered.
Meanwhile, the automaker kept the Jesko banner in the wind by doing stuff like introducing the 300 mph-capable Jesko Absolut, which is the velocity-focused sibling of the Jesko Attack, the original version that’s nothing short of a track-savvy downforce monster.
Koenigsegg also launched an online configurator for the Jesko in 2020, only allowing access to the 125 buyers. And, thanks to collector Many Koshbin, we found out that the Jesko’s naked carbon body was offered for an astounding $443,400โfor the record, that’s the starting price of a V12-containing Ferrari 812 GTS.
Oh, and don’t forget the $3 million one has to pay for the “base” Jesko.
Koenigsegg’s not racing at Le Mans just yet, but the KNC Jesko on the Circuit de la Sarthe was the next best thing
And, for the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race that took place earlier this month, the Swedes put a Jesko Attack with the Koenigsegg Naked Carbon option on the Circuit de la Sarthe. The car had been previously driven on public roads in Angelholm, but taking it to Le Mans exposed it to an infinitely larger audience.
The KNC Jesko Attack, which is chassis number 7286 according to the (unofficial) Koenigsegg Jesko registry, came from Carage Luzern, Koenigsegg’s Swiss dealer. It features orange brake calipers, with the same color being used for the Le Mans badge on the back, whose implications have not been released yet.
And, as you can imagine, the 1,600 hp toy caused quite a stir, reminding everybody of the days when car spotters would flock to one place to capture standout velocity machines in a way that rarely happens nowadaysโyou can thank Daniel Minarik (aka minarikhd) for the images in the gallery below.
If you ask for a clear coat over the carbon body, that brings the cost of the option down quite a bit ($292,000). Plus, peeking at that carbon weave via a tint (green, blue, red, or purple) means you have to pay $346,100 extra (note that all the prices listed here are from 2020).
So why is naked carbon that much more expensive? You see, the epoxy layer normally protecting the carbon that had been cured in the autoclave is polished out. This exposed the graphite strand, influencing the look and creating a surface so hard it will laugh in the face of your supercar’s coatingโthe feature was first introduced on the Regera in 2019.
Now, did we mention the naked carbon body is cold to the touch? You can keep that in mind as you check out the KNC Jesko Attack doing its thing on the track in the clip below (via RBK36).
And if the Regera hybrid recently recaptured 0-400-0 km/h record (28.81s or 29.6s for 0-250-0 mph) from the Rimac Nevera EV as a four-year-old model on new tires and a smoother runway, imagine what the Jesko can do once it gets to fully stretch its legs.