The Koenigsegg CCGT1 is a CC850-based megacar producing 1,280 hp on gasoline and 1,600 hp on E85, revealed at Monterey Car Week.All 70 examples sold out within hours of the debut, and a first-ever factory track package turns it into something close to a genuine race car.The car pays tribute to the stillborn CCGT, the GT1 racer Koenigsegg built in the early 2000s before an FIA rule change killed the project. Every carmaker has a ghost in its past. For Koenigsegg, that ghost is the CCGT, a proper GT1 racing car the company developed in the early 2000s, only for the FIA to change the regulations two months into testing and demand production volumes no boutique Swedish outfit could ever meet. The car worked. Test driver Loris Bicocchi said as much from the very first runs. It simply never got its chance. Two decades later, Christian von Koenigsegg has decided the story deserves a second act. It is called the CCGT1, it was unveiled at Monterey Car Week, and if you want one, bad luck. All 70 were spoken for within hours. How Koenigsegg Turned a Banned Racer Into a Sold-Out Megacar The CCGT1 sits on CC850 foundations, but nearly every body panel has been redesigned, with essentially only the doors and removable roof carried over. The original CCGT prototype ran a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8 with around 600 hp, weighed roughly 2,205 pounds and was projected to generate more than 1,323 pounds of downforce. The new car goes considerably further. Its road-certified twin-turbo V8 makes 1,280 hp on pump fuel and 1,600 hp on E85, with the engine management happily running blends of the two. The aerodynamics are the real spectacle. A huge active rear wing, inspired directly by the CCGT, swings through 30 degrees to move between low-drag, air-brake and high-downforce settings. Add a large front splitter, active underbody flaps, a fully flat floor and a dedicated diffuser, and the CCGT1 produces a maximum of 1,764 pounds of downforce at 155 mph. There is even a new roof intake feeding an enlarged oil cooler and a separate circuit that cools the dampers, because Koenigsegg expects owners to spend serious time on circuits. The construction is novel too: a new white composite called Ghost Fibre, a nod to 2009's Trevita, weaves aramid and carbon fiber together for greater strength, sound absorption and lower weight than conventional carbon. Then there is the gearbox, which is genuinely clever. The new Koenigsegg Sequential Shift system builds on the nine-speed Light Speed Transmission: a clutch pedal handles launches, then ignition-cut technology delivers ultra-fast clutchless shifts, with a selector called ASMR offering Auto, Sequential, Manual and Reverse. Purists can instead specify the CC850's Engage Shift System, a six-speed manual with a gated shifter. And for the first time in company history, Koenigsegg offers an official in-house track package: carbon roll bar, HANS-compatible seats, six-point harnesses, fire suppression, competition exhaust, bespoke suspension and brakes, slick tires, a second wheel set, sharpened aero, telemetry and integrated air jacks. So equipped, Koenigsegg says this will be the fastest car it has ever put on a racetrack. The ghost, finally, gets to run.
