While Koenigsegg’s registry is full of special cars with unique and rich stories from around the world, some stand above the rest. Even at the pinnacle of prestige, some cars stand above all. One of those is the Koenigsegg Agera RS Chassis #7143, commonly referred to as Ruthie. Ruthie is the most historically significant Agera ever made, being the exact car to break multiple world records.
The word Agera comes from the Swedish verb, meaning “to take action.” Chassis #7143 is finished in Koenigsegg’s Candy Apple Red combined with Arctic White accents. The paint is more commonly referred to as Burgundy Red by enthusiasts however. The interior is documented as Black leather with clear-coated carbon fiber and red contrasting stitching.
This Agera RS was optioned with Koenigsegg’s 1-Megawatt engine package, which changed the powertrain significantly. The name comes from the power output; when running on E85, the 5.0L twin-turbo aluminum V8 made 1,360 brake horsepower or 1,000 kilowatts of power. The turbos were optimized by using a twin-variable geometry design that featured larger compressor wheels and housings which raised the maximum boost pressure to 1.4 bar on E85. The engine was also fitted with carbon fiber intake manifolds and the cylinder heads were changed to handle the new pressure from added power. The fuel pumps all had to be changed as well to handle the 30% increase in volume from E85 gas. Lastly, all of the changes to the engine required that Koenigsegg re-tune the engine with their in-house software.
All of these changes to the powertrain meant that Ruthie’s horsepower now matched the dry weight of the car, making a 1:1 power to weight ratio (1,360 horsepower, and 1,360 kilograms). The first example of a car with this power to weight ratio was done by Koenigsegg with the One:1 project in 2014, 3 years before the Agera RS was made. The Agera RS also made 1,011 ft-lbs of torque between 2,700 rpm and 6,170 rpm.
On October 1, 2017, the car was moved to Vandel, Denmark to break the 0-400-0 km/h world record. The car was driven by Kiklas Lilja, the Koenigsegg factory test driver and accomplished Swedish racing driver. The record was broken, with a time of 36.44 seconds, marking the first record broken by Ruthie. In November, 2017 the car was transported to Pahrump, Nevada to be tested again. On November 4th, on 11 miles of the Nevada State Route 160, the Agera RS broke 5 world records:
The Highest Top Speed on a Public Road: Two-way average speed (277.87 mph / 446.97 km/h)
0-400-0 km/h: 33.87 seconds (beating its own record by 2.57 seconds)
Flying Kilometer: Average speed of 276.9 mph / 445.63 km/h over a public road kilometer
Flying Mile: Average speed of 276.33 mph / 444.76 km/h over a public road mile
Highest Peak Speed: Overall top speed (verified by GPS) at 284.55 mph / 457.96 km/h.
Ruthie has since toured the United States and has appeared at numerous events including Cars and Coffee events, The North American Auto Show, Monterey Car Week, Dream Ride, Las Vegas Concours, and many more. From September 2021 until December 2022 the car was used for a contemporary art project which included a fully-body wrap. The project was called Pomegranate, led by artist James Jean. His vision was to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Festival of Children Foundation.
Bryan Hood, 2021Out of the 65 total Agera models, Ruthie stands above the rest, and remains historic for the Koenigsegg brand as a whole. When you’re driving down the streets of Southern California, look for the Candy Red Agera RS, with the “277mph” license plate.