The Koenigsegg CC8S entered production in 2002 with a 4.7-litre supercharged V8, a six-speed manual and dihedral synchro-helix doors — the rotating, lifting mechanism that has appeared on every Koenigsegg built since.
A 5.0-litre twin-turbo V8 making 1,385 hp on E85, and the Engage Shift System — a nine-speed automatic that becomes a six-speed manual, clutch pedal and gated lever included.
The Koenigsegg CC850 production run is fully allocated. Register your interest for future Koenigsegg series and factory availability.
The red and gold diamonds inside the blue frame are not a car badge at all. They are the arms of the von Koenigsegg family of Swabia, granted when a member of it was knighted under the Holy Roman Empire in the twelfth century.
Jacob Låftman drew them into the badge the company uses in 1994. The gold monogram at the crown reads KCC: Koenigsegg CC, the prototype that every car here descends from — the CC8S first, the CC850 twenty-one years later.
The ghost you find elsewhere on these cars is a separate story. The factory stands on a decommissioned Swedish Air Force base at Ängelholm, and the squadron once stationed there painted a ghost on its planes. The squadron left; Koenigsegg kept both.
Before the CC850 there was the CC8S — the first car Koenigsegg actually sold. Six were built across 2002 and 2003, each one a 4.7-litre supercharged V8 with a six-speed manual, and each one assembled by a company that had spent the previous eight years proving it could exist at all.
It took the Guinness World Record for the most powerful production engine in 2002, and it introduced the dihedral synchro-helix door — the rotating, lifting mechanism that has appeared on every Koenigsegg since.
The CC850 is not a replica of it. It is the same argument made twenty-one years later with twice the power: that a hypercar should still ask something of the person driving it. Hence the clutch pedal that has no business existing in 2023, and the gearbox engineered at enormous expense to make it possible.
| Specification | CC8S · 2002 | CC850 · 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | 4.7L supercharged V8 | 5.0L twin-turbo V8 |
| Power | 655 hp | 1,385 hp |
| Transmission | 6-speed manual | ESS 9-auto / 6-manual |
| Kerb weight | 1,175 kg | 1,385 kg |
| Doors | Dihedral synchro-helix | Dihedral synchro-helix |
| Examples built | 6 | 70 |
Studio photography courtesy of Koenigsegg Automotive AB.
The Engage Shift System lets the Koenigsegg CC850 present a nine-speed automatic gearbox to the driver as a six-speed manual, with a real clutch pedal and a gated shifter. The car drives either way, and it will stall if the clutch comes up too fast.
1,385 hp on E85 ethanol, 1,185 hp on pump fuel, and 1,020 lb-ft of torque from a 5.0-litre twin-turbo V8. At a 1,385 kg kerb weight it reaches a one-to-one power-to-weight ratio.
Seventy. Fifty were planned to mark the founder's fiftieth birthday, and the run was extended to seventy after demand outstripped the original allocation.
The Koenigsegg CC8S. Six were built in 2002 and 2003 with a 4.7-litre supercharged V8 making 655 hp, and it took the Guinness World Record for the most powerful production engine in 2002.