Koenigsegg beats Bugatti’s speed record

Swedish carmaker Koenigsegg has smashed the production car speed record with its Agera RS hypercar, stealing the title from the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.

During a test run in Nevada, the hypercar reached an average top speed of 277.9mph, according to Autocar.

That means the car has dethroned the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, the magazine says, which set the previous record with a speed of 268mph in 2010.

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Although footage has emerged of the Agera RS travelling at 284mph, its official top speed is recorded over two runs and aggregated into one figure.

But Koenigsegg’s record may not last long, with two rival hypercars threatening to claim the world’s fastest car title.

Despite its recent setback, Bugatti could soon regain the title. The French car manufacturer’s successor to the Veyron, the Chiron, has yet to complete a top speed run.

In its current production guise, the W16-engined hypercar is limited to 261mph, but the restrictors could be removed in a later model.

The second contender is the newly announced Hennessey Venom F5, which according to its American makers, has a projected top speed of 300mph.

For the moment, though, Koenigsegg is at the top of its game. And it’s not the first record the Swedish hypercar brand has taken from Bugatti, says the Daily Express, as the firm beat Bugatti’s Chiron in a dash from 0-249mph and back again.

The French carmaker originally set the record with a time of just 42 seconds, the newspaper says, but this was quickly beaten by the Koenigsegg Agera RS, at 36 seconds.