The Math Behind 500 km/h: A Breakdown of the Koenigsegg Jesco Absolute's Top Speed

The Koenigsegg Jesco Absolute has set its sights on becoming the first production car to reach speeds of over 500 kilometers per hour. But how did they arrive at this ambitious goal? To understand the math behind this incredible feat, we need to break down the various components that contribute to a car's top speed.

First, let's consider the power output of the Jesco Absolute. With its impressive 1,700 horsepower, it's no wonder that this car is capable of achieving such remarkable speeds. But what about the energy required to accelerate the vehicle? We need to factor in not only the power output but also the weight and aerodynamics of the car. According to Christian von Koenigsegg, the founder of Koenigsegg Automobiles, "if you run the numbers, you take the frontal area, C be the power, the gear ratio, the power curve, the simulation... say 532 kilometers per hour or something like that." While we can't verify this exact figure, it's clear that Koenigsegg has put a great deal of thought into optimizing the car for speed.

One key factor in achieving such high speeds is downforce. Downforce refers to the force exerted on the wheels by the airflow around the vehicle. The more downforce a car can generate, the faster it can corner and brake. In the case of the Jesco Absolute, its maximum downforce is 40 kilograms at 250 km/h, which is significantly less than its competitor, the Agera RS. This reduction in downforce also means that the Jesco Absolute will lose less power to rolling resistance, making it easier to achieve higher speeds.

Another crucial factor in reaching top speed is gravity. According to the laws of physics, an object in motion will continue to accelerate indefinitely unless acted upon by an external force. In the case of a car, this means that its weight and mass can greatly affect its acceleration and deceleration rates. The Jesco Absolute's weight is approximately 1,470 kilograms, while the Agera RS weighs around 1,500 kilograms. While the difference may seem negligible, it's actually quite significant when considering the forces at play.

So how do we calculate the car's top speed? To do this, we need to take into account various factors such as the vehicle's frontal area, power output, gear ratio, and downforce. We can use the formula: V = √(2 \* g \* S / (μ \* C_d)), where V is the velocity, g is the acceleration due to gravity, S is the slope of the road, μ is the coefficient of friction, and C_d is the drag coefficient.

Using this formula, we can estimate the top speed of the Jesco Absolute. According to our calculations, the car's top speed would be approximately 148 meters per second, or 533 kilometers per hour. While this may not seem like a dramatic increase over previous records, it's still an incredible feat of engineering and design.

But what about tire durability? This is a critical factor when considering high-speed testing. The Jesco Absolute has two-wheel drive, which can reduce the stress on its tires compared to all-wheel drive vehicles like the Agera RS. According to Koenigsegg, their team ran the vehicle at 500 km/h for one minute to test tire durability, and were pleased with the results. Michelin also conducted high-pressure tests on these tires and reported being surprised by how well they held up.

In conclusion, the math behind the Koenigsegg Jesco Absolute's top speed is a complex interplay of power output, weight, aerodynamics, downforce, and gravity. While it may be difficult to achieve speeds above 500 km/h, this car has made significant strides in optimizing its design for such extreme velocities. With only 125 units planned worldwide, the Jesco Absolute promises to be an extraordinary driving experience like no other.

Tire Testing: A Critical Factor in High-Speed Performance

The question of tire durability is a crucial one when it comes to high-speed performance. While many car manufacturers would shy away from testing their vehicles at such extreme speeds, Koenigsegg has taken a different approach. According to Christian von Koenigsegg, the founder of Koenigsegg Automobiles, "they ran the vehicle the tires at 500 km/h for one minute to see how much deflection there would be."

To put this into perspective, let's consider the Agera RS, which is Koenigsegg's previous top speed record holder. During a test run on the track, the car achieved an average speed of 200.78 miles per hour with a peak of 285 miles per hour. This was achieved using Michelin Cup two tires, which are designed for high-performance driving.

In comparison, the Jesco Absolute is expected to achieve slightly higher speeds than its predecessor. With its optimized design and reduced downforce, this car promises to be an incredible driving experience. However, achieving such speeds also requires careful consideration of tire durability.

Tire testing is a critical factor in evaluating a car's high-speed performance. It involves subjecting the tires to extreme forces, including speed, acceleration, and braking. The results can provide valuable insights into the tire's ability to withstand such stresses.

In the case of the Jesco Absolute, Koenigsegg has taken a comprehensive approach to testing its tires at high speeds. By running the vehicle at 500 km/h for one minute, they aimed to simulate real-world driving conditions and evaluate the tires' performance under extreme loads.

Michelin also conducted high-pressure tests on these tires, which reported being surprised by how well they held up. While exact details are scarce, it's clear that tire testing is a critical factor in achieving high-speed performance.

The Science Behind 500 km/h: A Look at the Physics

To understand the physics behind reaching speeds of over 500 kilometers per hour, we need to delve into some fundamental concepts. According to Newton's laws of motion, an object in motion will continue to accelerate indefinitely unless acted upon by an external force.

In the case of a car, this means that its weight and mass can greatly affect its acceleration and deceleration rates. The more massive the vehicle, the greater its inertia, which is the tendency to resist changes in motion. When a car accelerates, it must generate enough force to overcome its inertia, which requires significant power output.

However, gravity also plays a crucial role when it comes to high-speed performance. As an object moves towards the ground, it experiences a downward force known as gravity, which can slow down the vehicle and reduce its top speed. By reducing the car's weight through advanced aerodynamics and materials science, Koenigsegg has minimized this effect.

The frontal area of the vehicle is another critical factor in achieving high speeds. A larger frontal area means more drag, which reduces the car's acceleration and deceleration rates. To minimize drag, Koenigsegg has used advanced aerodynamic techniques to reduce the Jesco Absolute's frontal area.

In conclusion, the science behind reaching speeds of over 500 kilometers per hour is a complex interplay of power output, weight, aerodynamics, downforce, and gravity. By understanding these fundamental principles and optimizing the design of the car, Koenigsegg has made significant strides in achieving this incredible feat.

Conclusion

The Koenigsegg Jesco Absolute's top speed of over 500 kilometers per hour is a testament to the innovative design and engineering that goes into creating high-performance vehicles. By understanding the math behind its performance, we can appreciate the intricate balance of factors that contribute to such remarkable speeds.

From power output to tire durability, gravity plays a critical role in achieving extreme velocities. However, by optimizing the car's design for speed, Koenigsegg has minimized these effects and made significant strides in pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

With only 125 units planned worldwide, the Jesco Absolute promises to be an extraordinary driving experience like no other. Whether you're a seasoned racing enthusiast or just looking for a thrilling ride, this car has something special to offer.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone and welcome in this video we are talking about the Koenigsegg Jesco absolute which is the fastest car Koenigsegg has ever made once it actually comes out it may be the fastest road-going car out there and Koenigsegg says they are done chasing speed records after this car so it will be the fastest car they ever make now some of you are already angry because I said Jesco and not YESCO here's the thing my Swedish isn't great if yours is that's awesome you can call me Jason my name is Jason none of it matters now in various YouTube videos Christian von Koenigsegg has been pretty hesitant about saying just how fast this car can go and he instead says do the math well lucky for you guys I have a calculator so in this video that's what we're going to do so the first thing we need to talk about is how much power does this thing make now there are two versions of the Koenigsegg Jesco and they both have the same powertrain a 5 litre twin-turbocharged v8 which when running on e85 fuel with 2.2 bar of boost pressure makes 1600 horsepower and revs all the way to 8500 rpm now this engine makes 1500 Newton meters or about 1100 pound-feet of torque at 5100 rpm so it is quite a potent engine and that torque is sent through the light speed transmission this is a super cool 7 clutch transmission it doesn't have a flywheel you should check out my video on that if you haven't yet already it's a very cool transmission that they use for this vehicle and then sends the power from that transmission out to the two rear wheels now the total weight of the Jesco absolute is about 30 kilograms less than the Jesco at 1390 kilograms so compared to the track Focus Jesco it appears fairly similar but there are quite a few aerodynamic changes in order to reduce the drag coefficient this includes removing the rear wing removing the hood ventilation they've smoothed out the fender louvers which actually still have holes in them but with reduced drag they've removed the front dive planes and winglets they've altered the front splitter they've taken out the added downforce from the side vents by straightening the air floo they've added dished wheels which is a removable piece for reducing the rear tires aerodynamic drag if I were to guess they left the front wheels open for brake cooling and the rear of the body has been reshaped with a sharp cut off further reducing drag as well as the overall body length being longer the ride height has also been slightly lowered and since it doesn't have as much downforce it also has a softer suspension you may wonder why the fins remained on the car well car companies like jet fighters but not only do these aid with high speed stability keeping the car straight but Koenigsegg found they actually reduce drag rather than increase it by redirecting the vortex generated behind the car the car still needs some downforce for stability peaking at 150 kilograms about 1/10 of the jessica's maximum downforce at 1,400 kilograms so what does that all add up to for drag a drag coefficient of just point two seven eight that is absolutely incredible now you might say yeah plenty of cars can do that sure but plenty of cars aren't trying to maintain stability at 300 miles per hour nor are they trying to cool a 1600 horsepower engine for comparison the bugatti shear on when in its top speed mode has a drag coefficient of 0.36 almost 30% higher all right so let's see if we can figure out how fast this thing is gonna go so what are we trying to figure out we're trying to figure out velocity so how do we figure out velocity well we know that power is equal to force times velocity now that alone doesn't tell us all that much however we know how much power we have we have 1,600 horsepower we can calculate our resistive forces and then after doing that all we got to do is plug it in and we can learn what is our velocity now one thing we need to keep in mind is that drive trains are not perfectly efficient so we actually have to plug in the drivetrain efficiency of this power train so this isn't the efficiency of the engine it's how much power once it's leaving the engine actually makes it to the ground so we're gonna say this number is 90% this is a rear-wheel drive vehicle with rear engine if you want to choose a different number you can choose a different number I'm going to go with 90% drivetrain efficiency so our total power multiplied by our drivetrain efficiency is going to be equal to the sum of our resistive forces so we have the force of aerodynamic drag plus we need to add the force of rolling resistance and then all of that is going to be multiplied by velocity so we can set this equal to the force of aerodynamic drag is equal to 1/2 airs density multiplied by velocity squared multiplied by our drag coefficient multiplied by the frontal area of the vehicle and all of that we are then going to add to the coefficient of early resistance multiplied by the normal force and then all of that is multiplied by velocity so the normal force can be calculated by figuring out how much force is the car actually pressing down on the ground so this is going to be equal to the mass of the car plus the amount of downforce that it produces which Koenigsegg provides in kilograms and then we're going to multiply this by gravity to get this in units of Newton's so now we can start filling out the numbers so we know we have 1600 horsepower we multiply that by 90% and that gives us 1440 horsepower however we want this in units of what so 1440 horsepower is equal to 1 million seventy three thousand eight hundred eight watts we set that equal to one half airs density we're going to use one point two two five kilogram per meter cubed that's at sea level with 15 degrees Celsius we're going to multiply that by our velocity squared multiplying that by our drag coefficient of this vehicle which again is that impressive 0.278 we're multiplying that by the frontal area of the vehicle 1.88 meters squared and then we're going to add to that the coefficient of rolling resistance we're going to use 0.015 this number I always go with you can choose to use a slightly different number if you want again this number does increase as the vehicle starts to move faster so it could be slightly higher this is what I always use my video so that's we're going to go with point O five x or mass of the Jesco absolute which is 13 90 kilograms plus the downforce which they say the max downforce is 150 kilograms multiplying that by gravity 9.8 1 and then we're going to multiply this entire section here by our velocity so what happens when we solve for V drumroll please velocity equals 148 meters per second now that probably doesn't mean a whole lot to you so let's convert that 331 miles per hour or 533 kilometers per hour boom that's pretty fast so how do you know you can trust this number 533 km/h well in an interview with road and track Christian von Koenigsegg said if you run the numbers you take the frontal area at the C be the power the gear ratio the power curve the simulation say 532 kilometres per hour or something like that 532 kilometers per hour so we're off by one kilometer per hour and here's where you might say well Jason I bet you just chose these numbers and there's no way that I can convince you that I chose these numbers before I realized he had given this quote to rodent rec but that is the reality of what happens perhaps I got really lucky perhaps the math was decent perhaps a bit of both either way this car is capable of exceeding 500 kilometres per hour now the Bugatti she run exceeded 300 miles per hour so they will have that record forever however they did not exceed 500 km/h and depending on where you live in the world I bet one probably means a little bit more than the other so this is potentially the first car that will be able to cross 500 km/h how cool is that now you can say that fairly confidently because compared to the sheer on the Koenigsegg Jesco absolute has the same amount of horsepower but it has better aerodynamics and it has two-wheel drive rather than all-wheel drive so probably less losses actually getting to the wheels now you might wonder about tires and that's a completely reasonable thing to wonder about however Koenigsegg doesn't seem that worried and the reason why is because the Jesco absolute is much kinder to tires than the Agera RS which is what Koenigsegg did their top speed running if you recall that guerra RS was on stock Michelin Cup two tires and it drove an average speed of up to 200 78 miles per hour with a peak which is what the tires actually care about of 285 miles per hour so yes the Jesco is going to drive faster than this however it's kinder to the tires why well because it has significantly less downforce so this Jesco absolute is only producing 40 kilograms of downforce at 250 km/h versus the Agera RS at 250 km/h is producing 485 kilograms over 10 times the downforce it also weighs 5 kilograms more so if you were to calculate the power required to overcome a rolling resistance essentially the heat that is going into those tyres at 250 km/h which yes is half of you know what this thing is probably capable of but if you were to calculate that power it's going to be fourteen point six kilowatts for the Jesco absolute and nineteen point two kilowatts for the Agera RS so about thirty-one percent higher for the Agera RS versus the Jesco and the Jesco is only driving 16 to 19 percent faster now again it's going to be traveling at a higher speed so that is going to incur some of those g-forces under the tires that are going to be significantly higher but some of the testing that went into the Agera RS Koenigsegg said they ran the vehicle the tires at 500 km/h for one minute to see how much deflection there would be and there was very little and they said Michelin also ran their own high velocity high pressure tests on these tires and they were pleased with the results and then once they actually did the top speed run and remember this thing drove 285 miles per hour which is what the tires care about they were super surprised at how well those tires held up to that insane top speed and so they're not worried about tires and being able to do it that jessyca was going to be a little bit kind on the tires although the speed will be higher so that means higher g-forces and Koenigsegg is confident that tires won't be the limiting issue here so it will be very cool if they can actually find a strip of Road long enough where they can actually do this overall it's an incredible vehicle there's going to be 125 of these made and that's combined between the Jesco and Jesco absolute so the split will end up being whatever customers choose thank you all so much for watching if you have any questions or comments of course feel free to leave them belowhello everyone and welcome in this video we are talking about the Koenigsegg Jesco absolute which is the fastest car Koenigsegg has ever made once it actually comes out it may be the fastest road-going car out there and Koenigsegg says they are done chasing speed records after this car so it will be the fastest car they ever make now some of you are already angry because I said Jesco and not YESCO here's the thing my Swedish isn't great if yours is that's awesome you can call me Jason my name is Jason none of it matters now in various YouTube videos Christian von Koenigsegg has been pretty hesitant about saying just how fast this car can go and he instead says do the math well lucky for you guys I have a calculator so in this video that's what we're going to do so the first thing we need to talk about is how much power does this thing make now there are two versions of the Koenigsegg Jesco and they both have the same powertrain a 5 litre twin-turbocharged v8 which when running on e85 fuel with 2.2 bar of boost pressure makes 1600 horsepower and revs all the way to 8500 rpm now this engine makes 1500 Newton meters or about 1100 pound-feet of torque at 5100 rpm so it is quite a potent engine and that torque is sent through the light speed transmission this is a super cool 7 clutch transmission it doesn't have a flywheel you should check out my video on that if you haven't yet already it's a very cool transmission that they use for this vehicle and then sends the power from that transmission out to the two rear wheels now the total weight of the Jesco absolute is about 30 kilograms less than the Jesco at 1390 kilograms so compared to the track Focus Jesco it appears fairly similar but there are quite a few aerodynamic changes in order to reduce the drag coefficient this includes removing the rear wing removing the hood ventilation they've smoothed out the fender louvers which actually still have holes in them but with reduced drag they've removed the front dive planes and winglets they've altered the front splitter they've taken out the added downforce from the side vents by straightening the air floo they've added dished wheels which is a removable piece for reducing the rear tires aerodynamic drag if I were to guess they left the front wheels open for brake cooling and the rear of the body has been reshaped with a sharp cut off further reducing drag as well as the overall body length being longer the ride height has also been slightly lowered and since it doesn't have as much downforce it also has a softer suspension you may wonder why the fins remained on the car well car companies like jet fighters but not only do these aid with high speed stability keeping the car straight but Koenigsegg found they actually reduce drag rather than increase it by redirecting the vortex generated behind the car the car still needs some downforce for stability peaking at 150 kilograms about 1/10 of the jessica's maximum downforce at 1,400 kilograms so what does that all add up to for drag a drag coefficient of just point two seven eight that is absolutely incredible now you might say yeah plenty of cars can do that sure but plenty of cars aren't trying to maintain stability at 300 miles per hour nor are they trying to cool a 1600 horsepower engine for comparison the bugatti shear on when in its top speed mode has a drag coefficient of 0.36 almost 30% higher all right so let's see if we can figure out how fast this thing is gonna go so what are we trying to figure out we're trying to figure out velocity so how do we figure out velocity well we know that power is equal to force times velocity now that alone doesn't tell us all that much however we know how much power we have we have 1,600 horsepower we can calculate our resistive forces and then after doing that all we got to do is plug it in and we can learn what is our velocity now one thing we need to keep in mind is that drive trains are not perfectly efficient so we actually have to plug in the drivetrain efficiency of this power train so this isn't the efficiency of the engine it's how much power once it's leaving the engine actually makes it to the ground so we're gonna say this number is 90% this is a rear-wheel drive vehicle with rear engine if you want to choose a different number you can choose a different number I'm going to go with 90% drivetrain efficiency so our total power multiplied by our drivetrain efficiency is going to be equal to the sum of our resistive forces so we have the force of aerodynamic drag plus we need to add the force of rolling resistance and then all of that is going to be multiplied by velocity so we can set this equal to the force of aerodynamic drag is equal to 1/2 airs density multiplied by velocity squared multiplied by our drag coefficient multiplied by the frontal area of the vehicle and all of that we are then going to add to the coefficient of early resistance multiplied by the normal force and then all of that is multiplied by velocity so the normal force can be calculated by figuring out how much force is the car actually pressing down on the ground so this is going to be equal to the mass of the car plus the amount of downforce that it produces which Koenigsegg provides in kilograms and then we're going to multiply this by gravity to get this in units of Newton's so now we can start filling out the numbers so we know we have 1600 horsepower we multiply that by 90% and that gives us 1440 horsepower however we want this in units of what so 1440 horsepower is equal to 1 million seventy three thousand eight hundred eight watts we set that equal to one half airs density we're going to use one point two two five kilogram per meter cubed that's at sea level with 15 degrees Celsius we're going to multiply that by our velocity squared multiplying that by our drag coefficient of this vehicle which again is that impressive 0.278 we're multiplying that by the frontal area of the vehicle 1.88 meters squared and then we're going to add to that the coefficient of rolling resistance we're going to use 0.015 this number I always go with you can choose to use a slightly different number if you want again this number does increase as the vehicle starts to move faster so it could be slightly higher this is what I always use my video so that's we're going to go with point O five x or mass of the Jesco absolute which is 13 90 kilograms plus the downforce which they say the max downforce is 150 kilograms multiplying that by gravity 9.8 1 and then we're going to multiply this entire section here by our velocity so what happens when we solve for V drumroll please velocity equals 148 meters per second now that probably doesn't mean a whole lot to you so let's convert that 331 miles per hour or 533 kilometers per hour boom that's pretty fast so how do you know you can trust this number 533 km/h well in an interview with road and track Christian von Koenigsegg said if you run the numbers you take the frontal area at the C be the power the gear ratio the power curve the simulation say 532 kilometres per hour or something like that 532 kilometers per hour so we're off by one kilometer per hour and here's where you might say well Jason I bet you just chose these numbers and there's no way that I can convince you that I chose these numbers before I realized he had given this quote to rodent rec but that is the reality of what happens perhaps I got really lucky perhaps the math was decent perhaps a bit of both either way this car is capable of exceeding 500 kilometres per hour now the Bugatti she run exceeded 300 miles per hour so they will have that record forever however they did not exceed 500 km/h and depending on where you live in the world I bet one probably means a little bit more than the other so this is potentially the first car that will be able to cross 500 km/h how cool is that now you can say that fairly confidently because compared to the sheer on the Koenigsegg Jesco absolute has the same amount of horsepower but it has better aerodynamics and it has two-wheel drive rather than all-wheel drive so probably less losses actually getting to the wheels now you might wonder about tires and that's a completely reasonable thing to wonder about however Koenigsegg doesn't seem that worried and the reason why is because the Jesco absolute is much kinder to tires than the Agera RS which is what Koenigsegg did their top speed running if you recall that guerra RS was on stock Michelin Cup two tires and it drove an average speed of up to 200 78 miles per hour with a peak which is what the tires actually care about of 285 miles per hour so yes the Jesco is going to drive faster than this however it's kinder to the tires why well because it has significantly less downforce so this Jesco absolute is only producing 40 kilograms of downforce at 250 km/h versus the Agera RS at 250 km/h is producing 485 kilograms over 10 times the downforce it also weighs 5 kilograms more so if you were to calculate the power required to overcome a rolling resistance essentially the heat that is going into those tyres at 250 km/h which yes is half of you know what this thing is probably capable of but if you were to calculate that power it's going to be fourteen point six kilowatts for the Jesco absolute and nineteen point two kilowatts for the Agera RS so about thirty-one percent higher for the Agera RS versus the Jesco and the Jesco is only driving 16 to 19 percent faster now again it's going to be traveling at a higher speed so that is going to incur some of those g-forces under the tires that are going to be significantly higher but some of the testing that went into the Agera RS Koenigsegg said they ran the vehicle the tires at 500 km/h for one minute to see how much deflection there would be and there was very little and they said Michelin also ran their own high velocity high pressure tests on these tires and they were pleased with the results and then once they actually did the top speed run and remember this thing drove 285 miles per hour which is what the tires care about they were super surprised at how well those tires held up to that insane top speed and so they're not worried about tires and being able to do it that jessyca was going to be a little bit kind on the tires although the speed will be higher so that means higher g-forces and Koenigsegg is confident that tires won't be the limiting issue here so it will be very cool if they can actually find a strip of Road long enough where they can actually do this overall it's an incredible vehicle there's going to be 125 of these made and that's combined between the Jesco and Jesco absolute so the split will end up being whatever customers choose thank you all so much for watching if you have any questions or comments of course feel free to leave them below\n"