THERE are a number of petrol heads who wish they were born in a by-gone era. Personally, I wish I was born in the late 40s after the war.
This is because I would have loved to have seen the legendary Enzo Ferrari work his magic on his cars and on the race track. I would also have liked to see Ferdinand and his son Ferry Porsche roll out the 356 and the 911.
Then there are other names I would have loved to see and hopefully, rub shoulders with, Bruce McLaren, Ferruccio Lamborghini, Carol Shelby, Juan Manuel Fangio and a number of other drivers and car builders come to mind.
But fact of the matter is, it is 2014 and most of those people have passed on, leaving us their brilliant cars, some amazing records, and other god-like achievements we can only read and dream about today. But the big question is, has that era really ended?
The era where car makers were individuals with character rather than the dollar-chasing organisation today. Though the right answer to that would be yes, there are still a few individuals who build their own cars, and I'm not talking about custom experts. The two names that come to mind are Horacio Pagani, and Chrisitan von Koenigsegg.
Both are incredibly talented and passionate for the cars they build, but the similarities end there. "Well, I think there are many similarities but there are also many differences," said Koenigsegg when asked what the difference was between his car and Pagani's machines.
"We're both small companies, founder driven companies, driven by persons with a great passion for cars. Company size wise, we are very similar; volume wise we are also similar; price wise we are also similar, but that's where the similarities end. The cars look different, the emotion around our cars are very different too.
From a personal perspective, I think my cars are more driven by performance and technology while Pagani may be more driven by design and detailing of unique interior fittings and Italian flair.
Also I think it is their philosophy to outsource a lot of contracts to known sub-contractors while we pride in doing everything in house from a technical perspective. Wheels, brakes, brake callipers, everything is our own internal development," explains Koenigsegg.
The Swede was in Kuala Lumpur recently for the Malaysian launch of the RM15 million Koenigsegg Agera S, marking the first time that the hypercar maker has had a presence in Malaysia.
Koenigsegg is tall, big in stature and bald, but despite his intimidating appearance, the green-eyed giant is always up for a good laugh, speaks very polished English and is a charming character.
From his younger days, Koenigsegg has always been an inventor but like all great inventors, he was never taken seriously. However, he was a well known motorcycle tuner in his town, and some of his other inventions include a floor board that clicked in place rather than relying on glue, his amazing foresight also led to the creation of a memory chip-based music player in the late 80s and early 90s.
These inventions, however, never took off as no one believed they would work. He is also known as the father of the 'Rocket' catalytic conveyer and the Supercharger Response/Relief system, as well as Koenigsegg's triplex suspension system that is used in current Koenigsegg models.
This suspension system uses a transversely-mounted shock-absorber that connects the two rear wheels, together with independent suspension systems for each wheel.
Koenigsegg credits the internet, specifically Alta Vista for providing him with everything he needed to know when he first set up his company in 1994. "The internet was very important, I started using Alta Vista to search for many different types of technologies, carbon fibre, engine components, theories and calculating power and aerodynamics. Everything is on the internet, so that helped us a lot. And also to market the car ,of course, before the internet it was difficult to market a start up, that's why it helped a lot with development and marketing."
The small start up has come a very long way since then and Koenigsegg cars have always been the fastest if not amongst the fastest cars in the world. The cars are considered as ultra-luxury and though the focus has always been on Europe and the Middle East, Koenigsegg is moving its attention to Asia and even hopes to one day set up a plant here.
"Asia is definitely growing, soon 25% of the demand for Koenigsegg cars will come from Asia and that is great news for us as we are still in the process of building and learning. If the volume is substantial enough, we may even explore setting up some sort of a facility here in Asia," explains Koenigsegg.
However, operating in Asia does pose its challenges, especially the seemingly indecisive weather, and because of that the cars have to deal with a different set of challenges than their home ground in Europe. Koenigsegg, however, dismisses it as a potential problem.
"We have been in the Middle East for a while now and we are very good in temperature control," he explains.
"Water control is also something we have learnt to deal with by running in wet places like England where you get a lot of rain. General humidity however is not a worry because there is not much in our cars than can rust since almost everything is made up of carbon fibre, and high grade stainless steel and titanium.
"I am not worried about our cars running in Malaysia, as long as you service them on time, the engines are bullet proof. We also have a dedicated service centre here at Naza and we have some engineers who will be coming to Sweden for training. They also have a live link to our service portal and on top of that we have five flying service technician who will travel everywhere to help out, train and get to know the people."
So what does he like most about the cars he builds? "Well, besides the carbon fibre wheels, the neat closing of the retractable roof, the doors and others, it has to be the driving experience. These cars are very fast, so driving one is, in my opinion the best part of Koenigsegg cars," says Koenigsegg who used to personally test drives all of the cars before they are handed over to the owner.
These days, however, he has a highly trusted test driver who does the testing. "I used to drive all of the cars, but for the past few years we have a very talented test driver and I really trust his judgement," he says.
Before the end of the interview though, we ask him the most important question you can ask a hypercar builder – we ask him what car he personally drives. After the barrage of serious questions, Koenigsegg is caught off guard. Then he says: "Well, of course I drive these cars a lot, but my own personal car is a Tesla S. I ordered it two and a half years ago and I got the first car in Sweden. I am not a big fan of hybrid cars because they are complex and heavy and you have some of everything. I like more focus like optimising an internal combustion engine, or go pure electric. Mixing the two just makes it too complex in my book," he explains in conclusion to the interview.
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