Koenigsegg CC850 is a new manual hypercar

And isn’t it just beautiful? It follows along a trend that the Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 set, of re-embracing elegance, simplicity and an analogue ethos, but using modern technology, in an era of hypercars ever-more focused on downforce, performance and lap times. In silhouette, it has the simplistic form of that original car but modernised. Again, at the front, the light shape is similar, but with high-tech modern elements within. Likewise, there are elements of 2022 hypercar design, with the splitter complete with vortex generators at the end.

Then at the back, the triple-light design returns albeit with a modern LED look and the addition of a fully retractable top-mounted wing, a-la what first debuted on the Regera. A nicely judged diffuser hangs out below, with the typical Koenigsegg central exhaust sat in the middle. The wheels are a nice development of the originals too – lightened and revised, but still in metal rather than carbon as is convention now. In all, it’s a properly stunning thing, without seeming like a pastiche. Simplicity and elegance do not age. And yes, you can still pop the roof out.

We said analogue above, but it’s Koenigsegg’s habit to innovate, which you might think is at odds with the rearward-looking concept of analogue. It’s not. The nine-speed Light Speed Transmission from the Jesko is here in the CC850 but… it’s also a manual. Topped with the Swedish flag, per the CC8S, is a gear shifter, with eight gates, in the CC850. Six of those are forward ratios controllable by the driver, the seventh is reverse and the eighth is automatic mode.

The LST is as it was, but Koenigsegg has developed a manual actuation for it, clutch and shift mechanism included. It’ll even let you stall. Because of the way the nine-speed LST works too, those six manual ratios can vary based on what mode you’re in – short and aggressive for track work and enthusiastic driving, or leggy for motorway cruising. In normal road mode, “first” on the gate will select third in the box, for example. Then when you don’t fancy shifting, say, in traffic or in a city, the automatic mode will take care of everything. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

We’ll stick with the interior and indeed the analogue theme, which is carried on beyond the shifter and its exposed mechanism. A gorgeous analogue central dial dominates what’s ahead, viewed through what is now a good old-fashioned circular wheel. That dial is intricate, almost watch-like and a work of art. It’s not all a love letter to antiquity, though. There’s a nice big screen in the middle, per the Jesko on which the CC850 is based and the carbon, leather and metalwork throughout is near peerless – definitely the product of a company that’s been making million-pound hypercars for over 20 years.

Lastly, power. That’s normally the headline with Koenigsegg and the fact it’s the last thing we’ll cover is indicative of just how special this car is. The 5.0-litre twin-turbo V8 joins from the Jesko, albeit with smaller turbos, to allow for what Koenigsegg claim is next to zero turbo lag. Power peaks at 1,385PS (1,019kW) when running E85, or just under 1,200PS (883kW) on pump fuel. To contextualise just how ‘enough’ that is, as if you thought it wasn’t, the CC850 also weighs only 1,385kg, meaning it does the one-to-one power-to-weight ratio, familiar to a rather more extreme-looking machine Koenigsegg sold a few years ago.

What about the name? The 50 is a reference to both the 50-car production run that is planned and the fact that founder Christian von Koengisegg is turning 50 this year. With just 50 made, it’ll also be the fourth-rarest series from the marque, after the original CC8S, the CCR and the One:1. Even at $3million a pop, we wouldn’t hesitate.