FIRST DRIVE: Koenigsegg Chimera - 1600bhp, Manual, Agera RS/Jesko/CC850 Mash-Up!

this is the KX egg Agera RS and it's basically hypercar royalty only 25 of them were built between 2015 and 2018 and in 2017 this car went on a record-breaking Rampage although it's been bettered since by the regera and more recently the yesco absolute the Agera RS ticked off not to 249 M A and back to N in 33.2 N seconds he managed a quarter mile run in 9.96 seconds and for a Time held the official fastest top speed for a road going vehicle hitting 285 mph in One Direction on a closed Road in Nevada except it's not actually an Agera RS yes it looks like one from the outside but actually this is a gloriously mad oneoff called the Chimera spelled slightly differently to the TBR and have you spotted what's different yet it's down here instead of the single CL seven-speed Auto you got with the Agera you've got a six-speed manual and that's not all in fact the powertrain is a combination of the trick simulated manual gearbox from the cc850 that's Keg's retro tribute to its first ever production car the cc8s and the engine from aesco a twin turbo 5 L V8 with no flywheel for whip crack revs and lots of power 1280 brake horsepower on regular 95 octane Pump Fuel or 1,600 horsepower on E85 the gearbox is actually the 9-speed automatic from the Esco underneath but uses sensors and actuators to simulate the exact force feedback you get from a real [Music] manual so you can stall it you can slip the clut you can do perfectly timed heel and toe downshifts all that good stuff or you can stick it in a full auto mode if you're feeling incredibly lazy or hit this button on the dash and take control via the paddles behind the wheel and that is a unique feature to this car the Chimera the cc850 only gets the six-speed manual gear lever and the full auto mode but this you get the choice of all three and because it only weighs 1,400 kg which is 100 kg less than the Esco this thing really rips fourth gear fifth gear 250 60 70 oh I'm going to go on the brakes now that was somewhere fast approaching 300 km an hour it's insane now if you recall the Agera RS was more of a track focused kic EG unlike more Road buyer stuff like the regera or the yes go absolute and that totally plays out here with the experience of driving this thing so we're on Kix EG's test track it's actually a Runway so it's not the full track experience but I'm still getting the chance to Wang it around when I turn around at either end and honestly the way this car reacts It Feels So instant so flat so fizzy that engine the way it revs up is absolutely insane but here we'll go around this Bend here down into third gear down in second gear on the brakes yeah it's flat the responses are electric it's a proper event to drive this car and then when you consider that I'm bringing together this whole mechanical ballet with my left foot on the clutch pedal and my right hand on this gear lever it just makes the whole thing yeah more of an event not the KX egg hypercars were ever told to drive you understand it's just that this thing this little stick makes the whole thing more [Music] memorable you've probably noticed there's a bit of a manual Revolution going on at the moment with cars like the GMA t50 Aston Martin Valor Pagani Utopia and Porsche 911 St and now this and I can see why when you combine modern handling polish and power with old-fashioned gearshifts it's utterly addictive more power especially in one of these psycho swedes isn't really going to move the enjoyment needle anymore but a manual shifter most definitely is which is all well and good but there is a bit of an elephant in the room because why on Earth would you pay what I can only assume is enormous amounts of money to transplant a cc850 and yesco powertrain into a Agera RS when you could just buy a cc850 or a yesco to answer that question and all the other unique challenges that this project brought we spoke to the man himself Christian Bon conix [Music] okay so Christian the Chimera can you explain what what are we looking at here it's a it's a a coming together of different parts of different cars so yeah let's go through which bit comes from where and then we'll talk about the crazy challenge of making them all fit together and talk to each other yeah so let's start with the name first which was interesting so the owner of the car who kind of came up with this idea that we started thinking about if we could do or not and eventually we ended up doing it he had an idea for a name he came up with during the process and one of our Engineers came up with an idea during the process and it was the same name and it was Chima and Chima is some sort of two-headed animal or something like that or two beasts in one or something of that nature and that's truly what this car is this belongs to a a I would say a friend and a and a long-term client of ours Muhammad Ben s in Dubai who has a few Kix eggs and few more coming and he said can we do a special product to one of my cars and then we presented the cc850 at the monter car week in 2022 and he saw kind of the technology behind this one and he said maybe it were interesting to take my early Agera RS and do kind of fuse it with this idea and I kind of felt well you know that's that's that and this is this but it kind of also made sense from a perspective of development because we were allowed to use it as an input and test carard for the development program as well I started thinking about it and uh what how it could be helpful how it could be interesting but in the end it was much a much bigger work than we had anticipated because one thing leads to another that leads to another and it's I mean it's it's about 10 years between these model and there several models in between so you have older electronic board newer um different screens different screen and and and they I mean we have information here now that relates to this engine transmission and even here and it's just so many things coming together this transmission and engine is intended for for uh Mount I mean let's say not solid mounts the gear RS has as a structural uh engine and transmission while our more modern cars have uh active mounts yeah so you don't have the same mechanical clatter you can say which I always felt was like oh it's pretty extreme and I was so happy when we got them more quiet and now I have any cust I missed the old like the the old rough gut whatever you do it's kind of cuz the AG RS had a really distinctive sound in it like really so to break it down the it looks like an Agera RS from the outside so a RS body it's the body of the donor car can we call it a don yeah then you have the the yeso engine but it's it's slightly detuned in the cc850 so here it has the full here it has the let's say the big turbos uh which makes it uh well when you're on the boil and shift you can you can sense a little bit of spool up after a shift while in this one you don't which was the idea so that's a bit different and and as the interior had paddles in it we had a discussion with the owner and said could you try to fuse the software so I can have all three systems and I said isn't it enough with two no I would like to try to have three and said okay let's try in in City driving and and if you're lazy highway driving and on auto is great track both hands on the steering wheel paddle boom boom boom aggressive mountain and Country Roads I prefer manual because it's the most exoskeleton way of driving the car it becomes an extension of your skills and your eyes I mean the paddle shifts it only has eyes for choosing shift but it doesn't have eyes to choose how to use the clutch so when you're manual on country roads or Mountain Roads you you can become more fluid you can you can use the kiss point an engine brake and flow better than paddles so you can drive more with a better flow and a different Dynamics with the manual so it actually improves the performance in a way maybe not in seconds up a mountain pass but the how smooth the car operates can be higher and more intuitive yeah so it's it's [Applause] interesting so that's me blipping that's you blipping yeah that's all Christian it's more fun to blip it's so so resp with an engine that's this responsive it would be rude Nazi so given everything I just said we have decided for the cc850 program to have one option only because it had no options but now we've added one option you can choose to have paddles as well together with a manual and automatic what's the uptake we don't know yet because we haven't introduced it you're the first one to hear it you're the first ones to hear about it oh well that's we will see I don't know yeah and I feel a it's like a twoed short because it's kind of pure just man and automatic but this is a really fast car and it has quite a lot of downforce with the popup wing and so and it's it's it's a really good track car MH so it just gives that little extra Edge there is it too elaborate and does it become complex and clumsy and so on actually it is lighter than our six speed SEMA transmission system we had with manual MH and you get the automatic and paddle you get to keep the no flywheel on the on the 5 L turbo V8 correct correct so that's actually a huge Advantage because if you have a normal manual you usually have a flywheel and a clutch on on the crank and that slows it down here you have this motorcycl like [Music] response yeah it it's like a motorcycle yeah you can blip so easily and just rev match like never ever experienc in another car you came up with this idea for this this I we've been calling it a simulated manual do you do you are you comfortable with that you know you can call it whatever you want actually you can call it it there is no mechanical connection from the shifter to the transmission shift by wire it's a shift by wire uh you you're allowed to call it whatever you want but but but it gives the manual experience it's easy if you want you can stall the car you can slip the clutch you can burn the clutch even if you want I will be a bit too clumsy there we go a Christian you've done it again talk about just the challenges because it sounds relatively simple you know oh you take this chassis you put the engine and you put the subframe here bolt it back together so we had to move battery positions we had to rip out all the cable harnesses wiring harnesses put half new controllers in right new software for instrumentation for for for infotainment system it has actually active aerodynamics you can see the active shock absorbers here uh and this is an interesting point this this subframe here is is is from the Esco and and these shock absorbers kind of ended up in a different position compared to on the normal agar RS but we were very lucky they kind of just fitted perfectly there in this open window it's like we almost planned it but that's kind of just mix of the two ending up like that it's nice that you got one piece of luck cuz like it sounded like lots of other pieces had to be modified cut and shift and there is the opportunity if we open up in the rear here yeah here we go uh so the wheels are smaller so it makes the gear ratio slightly shorter so it's even kind of faster through the gears on the Nira uh the exo system goes up here and down here because the transmission goes down there back to here mhm so that's the difference in length of a transmission on on on a yesco or or a c850 this is the benefits of this light speed exactly it's just compact little lump it's smaller and and of course the the SEMA 7 speed is an evolution of the SEMA 6 speed manual which is equally long almost it's just this difference so it just shows how Compact and lightweight this thing is there's going to be people watching there with Deep Pockets who are thinking oh great Christian is open for business for crazy one-offs right I'll have a uh you know a CCX with a yesco engine with a blah blah blah I would say it's poly true but we would not do exactly this again it's it's just too much work it's better and for sure more financially viable for the owners to buy a new car or create the project from scratch even this kind of reverse fusing is just like and of course we learned something along the way on this but it's still it's still oneof and and we would have to R off it again and and we would not recommend doing it to this level it's the difference between renovating a house or just leveling it and building a new one in a way yeah yes but the end result is absolutely fascinating yeah incredible project and well done for seeing it through cuz it sounds like you probably got halfway through and thought ah enough already but you seen it too um and thanks for having us along to to have a go in it it's a special let see what do you think special thing okay so with a little more context to chew on and some Christian von conic exsiz science to digest we decided to take the Chimera for a slightly gentler Road Drive okay so let's talk about this engage shift system manual gearbox down here the big question is would I notice would I know that it was a simulated manual if I wasn't already told and it's a tricky one to answer because development is still ongoing kegga is still improving it and the feel of it all the time and some things are absolutely brilliant but there are a couple of pointers so I love the feel of this exposed mechanism down here in this open gate manual is fantastic it's quite heavily spring-loaded so if I go from fourth to third hit it just slots right in it feels really really natural no complaints here on the way that this stick moves around the gear lever potentially it could be a little firmer there could be a little bit more mechanical grit to the way it moves but I'm told that's exactly what they're working on my biggest gripe is probably with the clutch pedal so it's spring-loaded the spring loading feels about right it's quite a natural amount of force to put through your left leg but it's when you're moving off in first the biting Point there's normally a little moment a little bit of vibration a physical sensation when you hit that kissing point or that biting point that I don't seem to get here which makes moving off slightly more difficult and slightly more fraught with danger that you're going to stall in front of all your other hypercar mates but as I said they're still working on this system and that'll be ironed out and once you're up and running well it's just a fabulous fabulous manual gearbox to operate it's a really special piece of [Music] technology why not just bolt a manual gearbox through a yesco engine and be done with it I hear you cry well it's a very good question because there are a load of benefits to this new system firstly you wouldn't have the full auto mode you wouldn't have the paddle shift mode in this Chimera also you'd have to reham the whole powertrain it would be heavier you'd have to have a flywheel which would erode some of this engine's crazy free revving nature and that's what makes this so clever because it's not just a gimmick that you can overlay on top of this --speed Lightspeed automatic transmission there's actual tangible benefits beyond the fact that you get a gear lever to waggle about [Music] and there are other benefits too because the auto gearbox underneath it has nine speeds you can actually play around with the ratios that correspond to the numbers 1 to six in the manual gearbox now for this car the Chimera they're fixed for the time being but in the cc850 when you change around with your driving modes the ratios within your manual gearbox are jumping about which is just brilliant and if all that is making your brain hurt a little bit allow me to simplify all you really need to know is that this mad invention this simulated manual gearbox it just works brilliantly and it makes this Frankenstein of a hyper car even more of an event to drive and let me tell you it even rides pretty well on these public roads around angle home the engine it's tractable even at low revs it feels smooth but it's always primed [Music] for a little poke of pure violence Muhammad Ben sum thank you for letting us pile a few miles onto your car you're a lucky boy okay so this Chimera doesn't do much that the cc850 or the yeso doesn't already do but it's got that secret ingredient that billionaires so C exclusivity it's one of one and a cracking story to tell when you're showing it off to your mates it was however our first opportunity to try the new simulated manual gearbox which confirmed what we already knew a that Christian von Kix is a mad Professor with a knack for making wildly complicated and ambitious engineering Solutions stick and B that the manual gearbox is still the boss what a rush what a rush this car is what a gloriously Bonkers company kig is not only to knock out cars that are as consistently unhinged as this but to take on a project of this complexity it just shows Christian Bon coneg he's a glutton for engineering punishment but he's made it thck it looks entirely natural everything is perfectly put together from the leather on the dashboard to the finish of the carbon fiber you'd never know that they had to cut and shut and bang and wiggle to make all these components that were never meant to live together come together and create this glorious glorious machine [Music]

Channel: Top Gear

Views: 1,150,327

Keywords: Top Gear, koenigsegg, koenigsegg gemera, koenigsegg jesko, koenigsegg gemera review, new koenigsegg, koenigsegg review, jesko, regera, jesko speed, jesko attack, gemera, gemera review, races, pagani, granada, ferrari, drag race, full send, drag strip, laferrari, drag racing, horsepower, lamborghini, supercar vlogs, car maintenance, chiron super sport, supercar owners circle, drag, race, racing, chiron, supercars, fast cars, koenigsegg cc850, koenigsegg chimera, one-off koenigsegg

Id: NIxeCotA0-0

Length: 21min 35sec (1295 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 07 2024