Many of us dream of starting successful companies, but at the same moment we do realise it is extremely difficult to actually be successful. Some of us get ideas along the way as we study or work, but some of us already get inspired as a kid. Very few of them manage to realise their plans. One of them is Christian von Koenigsegg.
Photo of Christian von Koenigsegg with his wife Halldora in the Koenigsegg Agera
Christian von Koenigsegg was born in 1972 in Stockholm. It only took him 5 years to realise what his biggest dream is. It was at the moment when he was watching the norwegian stop motion-animated movie(1) Flåklypa Grand Prix, a movie about a bicycle mechanic who with the help of his two close friends built a racecar that they managed to win a racing championship with, that he knew - he wants to build racecars for a living.
A still of a scene from Flåklypa Grand Prix
Driven by his dream he managed to finish high school in one year and then an economical programme in the Scandinavian School of Brussels. Remarkably - he has not had any training as a mechanic, apart from building RC cars and tuning friends’ mopeds as a hobby. In 1994, at the age of 22 he and a partner won a government grant to build a prototype they’ve been working on. He additionally managed to get loans to a total of about €6m from investors who wanted to support his dream to build the world's fastest car, and start up his own company Koenigsegg Automotive AB.
A photo from the Koenigsegg factory in Ängelholm
Their first car, the Koenigsegg CC8S, based on the original prototype blueprints went into mass production in 2002. Shortly after launch the car broke the Guinness Record - it became the world’s fastest production car(2) with the measured top speed of 241 mph (388 kph). Unfortunately, shortly after that, his factory caught a fire and got burned to the ground. Fortunately the team managed to recover a fair amount of tech from the site and could start over again at their current site - the Ängelholm air force base, where they have hangars for the factory and a full sized airstrip for testing their cars.
Photo of the Koenigsegg CC8S
After moving to the new factory they continued producing hypercars and reaching multiple milestones. The CCR met all the new Swedish safety and emissions regulations. The CCX, released in 2005, met all safety and emissions regulations - globally. 2007: the CCXR, which produced a total power of 1018 horsepower running on biofuel (the only hypercar at that moment exempt from vehicle tax). In 2010 they released one of their most popular cars - the Agera, which beat multiple records with its various editions. 2014 brought the One:1 to us being their first car with 1:1 power to mass ratio - 1341 bhp to 1341 kg (hence the car's name). Lastly, in March 2015 (at the Geneva Auto Show) they released the Regera, which is a hybrid, being the most powerful production car at the moment (a total of 1797 horsepower), and in addition being a car with no gearbox! (The regera uses a fixed gear with a torque converter(3)). At the same time they released their Agera RS, which lately beat multiple world records on one day.
Photo of the Koenigsegg Agera RS at the Geneva Auto Show
The real race for world records began when Bugatti released their promotional video for their Chiron in September 2017 where an ex F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya beats the 0-400-0 kph (0-249-0 mph) speed record with an astounding 42 seconds. People can barely believe this result is possible. And then, out of the blue,in the end of the same month, Koenigsegg says: We did not beat it. We crushed it.
Video of Bugatti Chiron with its 0-400-0 run
It was a sunny day in Nevada, when they closed off a nearly 10 mile long part of a Highway for a few runs. It was not until the next day that they planned the record-breaking attempt. But they did not need it. The test driver set the new record in two runs back and forth. The official time: 33.29 seconds - that means over 8 seconds faster than the Bugatti! After that they went down the road two more times to set a new average of 277.9 mph top speed. But that was not enough.
Video of Koenigsegg Agera RS with its 0-400-0 run
They managed to beat 3 additional records which have been unchallenged for nearly 80 years, set by Mercedes’s Rekordwagen in 1938. The Agera beat the flying kilometer record with its 276.9 mph (445.6 kph), flying mile with 276.36 mph (444.7 kph) and improve the highest public road speed doing 284.55 mph (457.9 kph). And all that wasn’t done by the company’s test car - it was supplied by an owner from the US who “was very keen to prove the performance credentials of the car we’ve built for him” - said Christian von Koenigsegg.
Video about one of Koenigsegg’s innovations: the Regeras’s wing
Over the years Christian von Koenigsegg managed to build a very successful company and keeps making his dream come true. He also invented and introduced many innovations in his cars (such as the triplex suspension(4), free valve technology(5), Regera spoiler raising mechanism, Koenigseggs’ unique door “hinges”(6) and more) which are revolutionising the motoring industry and steadily pushing the game forward. I think we can all agree, that his childhood dream is more than fulfilled.
Footnotes:
(1) Stop motion is a technique based on a series of drawings or photos which as a series of quickly changing pictures tricks the eyes that the object are moving.
(2) A production car is a car that is mass-produced, which according to FIA regulation means at least 25 units within a 12-month period, sold to individual clients.
(3) Torque conversion was implemented in its simple form early on in mopeds, which do not have a gearbox. It is done by a fluid coupling opposed to the mechanical clutch used in conventional vehicles.
(4) An innovative rear suspension mechanism allowing higher comfort and straight-line speed which are two major problems encountered in sportscars.
(5) A technology allowing much more precise timing of the engine's valve actions, which improves the power output of the engine (the better synchronised it is the more power is generated).
(6) The doors use an unique mechanism that lets them open without much effort, additionally working even in very tight parking spaces.
Questions:
Do you think everyone can become successful being driven only by their dreams?
Would you want to have your own company? Would it be IT, or something else?
Would you want to have your own company? Would it be IT, or something else?
What was your childhood dream (career-related), if you had one?
Feel free to answer the abovementioned questions and/or comment on the article in the comment section below! :)
https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80109260 - Strongly recommend if you’re interested in cars!
http://www.thedrive.com/news/15766/nevada-closes-highway-to-let-koenigsegg-take-on-speed-record
Comments
Having my own company would require a huge responsible. I'm not sure if I'm ready for such a stress life. Anyway it wouldn't be IT company for sure.
As a little and stupid girl I loved flowers and my only dream was to have my own flower shop and work there so that I could smell flowers all day. Maybe someday I will have one, who knows?
It’s obvious that I’d like to have my own IT company. Leading your own company may be challenging and difficult. I like challenging things.
As a young boy I used to like cars so I’ve always dreamed to become car mechanic. Fortunately I have opportunity to do this in my free time.
Of course I would want to have my own company (preferably music industry).
I had a lot of dreams about my carrer as a kid. I was dreaming about becoming a doctor/military officer/musician.
When I was in kindergarden I told everyone that in the future I will be boss of Sony. My friends wanted to be firefighters, sellers or hairdressers - my family laughed at me and at family spends they called me "boss" :)
Of course I would like to have my own car company and design and test cars. Some time ago I watched " Top Gear" and I thought that this is dream job.
To be honest I don't remember my childhood dream.
Firstly, your idea has to have great potencial. Moreover, it should be studied, compared to other ideas, topical.
yeah, but it needs the basics of enterprise and economics
because i reckon it to be very important to run your own business successfully
yeah, I wanted to became an astronaut, a policeman, but it were unstable dreams of my childhood.
Many successful people say that pursuing their dreams is the most important thing in your life. But was it in fact sufficient to build their businesses and careers ? I am pretty sure that was not enough, they also had to do many other things like working hard, overcoming obstacles and what is also very important they had to be lucky.
I would like to have my own company one day but I am aware how hard could it possibly be to make it profitable. You have to have great ideas, sufficient budget and right people involved in order to succeed. I am not sure if it would be pure IT related business, it definitely should be something that will challenge me and let me push myself out of my comfort zone.
As a kid I dreamed about being F1 driver.
I've always wanted to run my own buisness. I am not talking about inheriting company from parents. I would like to build something by my own. I am not sure it's going to be related to IT.
After I watched "rocky 6" for the first time, I wanted to become a boxer. After all it was only my unstable, non-realistic dream.
To tell the truth, I would like to have my own company, but it's not about power - it's about doing something that I'd love to. Some small business, that will make me happy and satisfied with my job.
When I was a kid I wanted to be a journalist, a surgeon, a detective and a zoo-keeper:)
Being a race driver is still one of my dreams, even if the chances of becoming a professional one are getting smaller and smaller for each year not competing.
It's all associated with money because succesful businesses generate it - often lots of it, but it's just a side effect and not a main one.
I would like to make own business in the future. I know that is not easy but I want to make good life to my family. I hope to achieve this
When I was a kid I wanted to be a footballer.
I've never viewed myself as much of an entrepreneur, but I thing I'd like building super cars. I've always liked puzzles and this kind of job provides you with plenty problems to figure out.
Nah, i never thought about it. I were always looking to work at cdpr and that was my main dream connected with carrer.
Nissan Skyline after watching first "fast and furious", duuuh.
I don’t think so. If so then everyone would be successful right now. In my opinion the key to be successful is not only having a dream, but also determination to achieve them. And maybe some good luck.
Would you want to have your own company? Would it be IT, or something else?
I think in some day I would like to lead some company but this is not my life-goal, and probably it would be some IT related company.
What was your childhood dream (career-related), if you had one?
I had many dreams, when I was child, like be an astronaut, but many of them were crashed by reality.
Maybe in future I would like to have my own company. It would be related with IT - games production. But having a company is a great responsibility and requires specific budget.
My childhood dream was to be a singer. Today I'm just posting my records on facebook or youtube so partly I achieved what I wanted.
Haven't thought about my own company but I do see how difficult and broad topic it is. It depends on what you want/like to do. If you like to make baskets and start you own company making baskets, you will not make baskets but will have to organize everything around the process of making a basket. From place/office, through funding and clients to workers and various issues and problems. In the end you may not do what you like to do - make baskets but might still feel fulfilled by producing baskets.
When I was a kid I wanted to be a fireman, scientist, an astronaut, solider (that one's weird from my todays point of view), wrc driver, a programmer/IT guy ofc, all kinds of things, the world was an endlesss opportunity. Too bad I've had grown out of it.
I would like to have my own company somewhere in the future. I'm a developer, so yes, it would be an IT company, but at this moment, I don't have a vision what would it do.
I would like to have my own company, It could be IT, but my real dream is to have some kind of restaurant, bar or something like that. I don’t think that I’ve had any childhood dream related to my future career, and even if I had I don’t remember it.
I would like to have my own company, for sure it will be IT.
Actually when I was young I wanted to have company with video games. Today I am thinking about something else:)
Personally, I'd like to have my own company which owns many luxurious hotels around the world, but "with great power comes great responsibility". As a CEO you are responsible for your employees. If you fail or make a wrong decision they can also pay for that. That's why I think it's not the best moment in my life to be a company owner. I don't want to fail other people. I need to learn more, but one day maybe I will achieve my goal ;)
I started my own company about 9 months ago. And it is a IT company. It was most stressful part of my life. But know there are more advantages than disadvantages.
Yes, Robert Gryn for example. Hard work will make your dreams come true.
Sure, I’d love to have my own business and I’m pretty sure, that it will be an IT business. Maybe software house?
My biggest childhood dream was to become a rock star, cause I’m really 90’s nu metal kid: Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, you know ;).
I think dreams are not enough to make it happen. It is worth to have a goal and to change it to be fulfilled. My dream is to set up my own company, which will introduce automated systems to companies.
Unfortunately dreams also have evil side - there are a lot of people who "sell" dreams and give other people false hope just to earn money. We should remember that not every dream can be achieved and they ought to be chosen wisely.
I want to have a company connected with IT, but now I don't have fair idea. Now I am gaining experience and think about something own. If I come up with an really good idea, I will realize it.
I wanted to be an actress, but I wasn't confident if I was enough good at it. On the other hand I can study at technical university after graduating humanistic school what was my second dream.