The Koenigsegg Chimera is a gloriously-mad one-off built for the FIA president

What you’re looking at is a Koenigsegg Agera RS – hypercar royalty, of which only 25 were built between 2015 and 2018. Except it’s not. Well, it used to be.

What it’s become is the Koenigsegg Chimera (spelled differently to the TVR Chimaera, if you remember that): a gloriously mad one-off mash-up that fuses the body of an Agera RS, the engine from a Jesko and the ‘simulated’ manual gearbox from the gorgeous CC850, that latter hypercar Koenigsegg’s retro-tribute to its first production model.

While you recover from that information, allow me to feed you some more: it’s the brainchild of its owner, Mohammed Ben Sulayem - yes, the president of the FIA - who challenged Christian von Koenigsegg to perform a heart transplant on his own Agera RS after falling in love with the CC850’s trick gearbox when it was first revealed in 2022.

Why not just buy a CC850, or a Jesko, I hear you cry? Because he’s already got one of each of those on order, and exclusivity is king. Bragging rights don’t come any better than a true one-of-one Koenigsegg.

The engine then is the Jesko’s 5.0-litre twin-turbo flat-plane crank V8 which does without a flywheel, and therefore revs like a superbike on nitrous. Feeling docile? Fill it with 95-octane standard pump fuel for 1,280bhp or find some E85 to unlock the full-fat 1,600bhp. And because the Agera is smaller and lighter than the Jesko, it’s around 100kg lighter overall.

The gearbox is ultimately the same 9spd auto you get with a Jesko, but piggybacking that is a six-speed manual that uses sensors and actuators to simulate the exact force feedback you get from a real manual, and offers you the option of manual shifts, a full auto mode or flicking the paddles behind the wheel. Genius.

It's a lot to take in, but then Koenigseggs always are. Want to know more? Watch the film below as we let rip on Koenigsegg’s test track and the surrounding public roads, and pin down Christian to talk about the engineering challenges of this project (many) and why on earth he said yes to it. Enjoy.

Photography: John Wycherley