Koenigsegg Chimera: An Agera RS Rebuilt With Jesko and CC850 Parts
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem's Agera RS came back with the Jesko's V8 and the CC850's manual-automatic gearbox. Up to 1,600 hp on E85.
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The Koenigsegg Chimera was shown on July 7, 2024, at The Aurora concours in Båstad, Sweden. It is a one-off: an Agera RS owned by FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, rebuilt with the engine of the Jesko and the gearbox of the CC850. It keeps its original Agera RS VIN, so on paper it is still the car he bought.
The 2024 story
The project began as a question. Impressed by the CC850's gearbox, Ben Sulayem asked Christian von Koenigsegg whether it could go into his Agera RS together with the Jesko engine. The car then served as a development platform for the CC850 transmission for about three years before it was finished.
The Engage Shift System is a gated six-speed manual with a clutch pedal that is, underneath, a nine-speed automatic. The driver can use the gate, Jesko-style paddles or let the car shift itself; Ben Sulayem asked for the paddles after seeing them on the Jesko. Fitting the newer hardware meant moving the battery, revising the powertrain mounts, changing suspension parts and rewriting the electronics so that Jesko and CC850 systems work in an Agera structure.
Agera RS vs Chimera
| Agera RS | Chimera | |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8 | Jesko 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8, flat-plane crank |
| Output | 1,160 hp | About 1,280 hp on 95-octane, about 1,600 hp on E85 |
| Gearbox | Seven-speed dual-clutch | Engage Shift System: gated six-speed manual and nine-speed automatic |
| Built | Series production | One-off, original VIN kept |
The output figures come from Top Gear, which drove the car.
Our read
The Chimera shows how modular Koenigsegg's recent engineering has become: an engine and a gearbox designed for the Jesko and the CC850 could be adapted to a car more than ten years older. It is not for sale and will not be repeated, which makes it one of the rarest modern Koenigseggs.
