Something amazing about the high performance automobile industry is that, with the help of new technologies, they are always pushing new limits. This is certainly the case for Swedish super car manufacturer, Koenigsegg, who has just unveiled the Koenigsegg One:1. According to Koenigsegg, the One:1 is the fastest production car in world. No records have been broken yet, but in simulated tests, the company claims the vehicle reached 273 miles per hour as a top speed. If it can do this on the track, it will be the fastest production car ever produced, beating out the Hennessey Venom GT, at 270.49 mph, which broke the record themselves just a couple weeks ago.
World’s Fastest Car, Koenigsegg One:1
So how did they manage to create such an amazing machine, capable of going twice as fast as some of the top sports cars did just 50 years ago? It all comes down to one simple ratio, horsepower to weight. The reason this Koenigsegg is called the One:1 is because of that very ratio. The car’s horsepower of 1360 is equal to its weight of 1,360 kilograms. In order to get the weight down as far as they possibly could, the company had to really work hard to figure out ways to cut back in all areas of the vehicle.
This is where 3D printing has come into play. Koenigsegg decided to 3D print the exhaust tips of the One:1 out of titanium. In doing so, they were able to shave off about 400 grams from the total weight. Not much when you consider the car’s weight is 1,360,000 grams, but enough for the company to spend 3 days printing the part for each super car they make. To date this has been the largest known 3D printed titanium part produced anywhere in the world.
The Koenigsegg One:1 will be on display at the Geneva Motor Show next week. The company plans on only producing six of these vehicles, at a price tag of $1.5 million.