Marc Haddad, a 23-year-old partner and investor in the e-commerce platform MyDailyLive.com from Laguna Hills, Calif., on his 2019 Koenigsegg Agera RS Final Edition, as told to A.J. Baime.
In November 2017, a group of Koenigsegg owners got together and had a stretch of highway in Nevada closed in order to make an attempt to break a speed record. An Agera RS owner offered his car, and a factory driver named Niklas Lilja was willing to put his life on the line. I had ordered my Agera RS but it was not delivered yet. Still, I was lucky enough to attend.
We all knew the car would break the record. The question was: By how much? The car would have to make a few runs to take the average of the uphill and downhill each way, with the wind one way and against the other. The car set an average speed of 277.9 miles per hour, making it the fastest street-legal customer car ever.
The following July, I took delivery of my car. Koenigsegg made only 25 Agera RSes, plus two more Final Edition cars. My car is one of those two. The Final Edition cars have every option imaginable and the cost was about $4 million.
I keep the car in a warehouse with fellow Koenigsegg owners, and when you see one of our cars on the road, chances are you will see five or six others behind it. We call our group of friends the Ghost Squadron, and we use our cars for cruises or dinner nights, but also at car shows that benefit charities. We want the cars to be community cars, not just personal cars.
Why Ghost Squadron? The Koenigsegg factory is on a former Swedish air base. There is a museum with Swedish fighter jets, and the fighter jets from back then were known as the Ghost Squadron. These jets have ghost icons on them. Koenigsegg cars pay homage to those jets. Each car has two logos—one is the Koenigsegg family crest and the other is a ghost. My car was inspired by a specific jet in the museum, and I was able to travel to Sweden to see it. For me personally, that adds value to the car, as it draws its inspiration back in history.
It can be nerve-racking driving the car because everyone around you is filming and coming very close. You have to be extra careful. But it is so capable at high speed and low speed, and so comfortable to drive.
The founder of the brand is Christian von Koenigsegg. For me, he is an engineering genius and a big reason I became a fan, even before I became an owner. A lot of brands you might get involved with—Ferrari, Lamborghini—are great, but you cannot call the founder of these brands if you have a question about your car. Mr. von Koenigsegg is so engaged with his fans and customers, I can literally call him if I have a question about my car. To me, that makes owning the vehicle a truly unique and wonderful experience.
Write to A.J. Baime at myride@wsj.com
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-clan-of-the-singular-swedish-supercar-11574772328
2019-11-26 12:45:00Z
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