Koenigsegg CCX Supercar Headed for America
Let’s face it; we don’t have enough supercars here in North America. While we get a few of the heavy-hitting all-stars like the Ferrari Enzo, Porsche Carrera GT and the Mercedes-McLaren SLR, we’re consistently missing out on some of the machines that come out of small, almost coachwork-style firms.
We don’t get Ascaris, Spykers, Nobles or the beautiful Paganis, and we certainly don’t get Sweden’s only supercar, the difficult to pronounce but brutally fast Koenigsegg. Prior to the Bugatti Veyron (also unavailable in North America) the Koenigsegg CCR held the title of the world’s fastest automobile, with a top speed of more than 345.4 km/h (245 mph). The only way to have this truly desirable vehicle on North American soil was either on your computer screen or TV; that was until this year’s Geneva motor show, where the brand unveiled the heavily reworked CCX, a version of the CCR, tailor-modified to North American rules and tastes.
The reason that most of the world’s great supercars or sports cars don’t cross the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean is because they fail to meet a wide variety of federal standards, ranging from safety, to bumpers and emissions. The U.S. government requires that all cars sold there must have an airbag, be able to meet front side and rear impact tests, have bumpers that can withstand a 2.5 mph (4 km/h) knock, and be able to pass the EPA’s stringent emission and smog controls. Canada’s rules are even more difficult to meet, making it the heaviest regulated of any country in the world - at least with regards to the automotive sector. This is very different from the state of things in Europe, where low-volume production runs and kit-cars bypass many of the rules and regulations of mass volume passenger vehicles, explaining why the Morgans and Caterhams of the world are still alive and kicking despite the use of outdated engines and underpinnings that are of questionable structural integrity.
