We time the Koenigsegg Jesko Attack at 200 mph: how do the SF90 and 911 Turbo S compare?

The Koenigsegg Jesko Attack is now the fastest production car to fold Dunsfold in the Stig’s hands. 1m 10.9s. Yes. The fastest road legal car on a circuit and of course the fastest in a straight line, taking into account the records set by the low-drag Jesko Absolut a few months ago.

Now, a little bonus for you. We made the most of our day in Dunsfold with Jesko and managed to immerse ourselves in the speed of the Jesko Attack in a straight line.

First things first. I was really pressed for time, so I could literally only run once in each direction. With a little more time and practice, the Attack would have gotten off the line more cleanly and probably slipped under the 3.0s at 60 mph barrier. It’s not going to do much better than that for physical and traction reasons.

Anyway, the small numbers aren’t what I want to focus on because the Jesko revs up to 100 mph. Seriously, when we went back and looked at the track, there were black lines painted way, way up on the track. It wasn’t solid, more like Morse code where the traction control kept nibbling.

Below is a complete acceleration table, comparing Jesko with two cars: the Ferrari SF90 and Porsche 911 Turbo S. Think of this as three levels of performance: sporty, supercar, hypercar or 650 hp, 1,000 hp and 1,500 hp (the Jesko ran entirely on E85).

Both the Ferrari and the Porsche are 4×4, so they get off the line much faster. The lighter Porsche actually takes the lead and maintains the lead at 40 mph, getting there in just 1.57 seconds. One and a half seconds at 40 mph. My God. At that moment it is the SF90’s turn to shine. By the numbers, it’s quicker than the Koenigsegg to 120 mph (both get there in about 6.4 seconds), but in reality once above 70 mph, the Jesko starts to catch up, beating each increment of 10 mph faster than the Ferrari. And as speeds increase, those gaps get larger and larger.

The Turbo S takes 11.07 seconds to go from 50 to 150 mph, the SF90 sneaks in at just under 8 seconds, but the Jesko does it in 5.66 seconds. That’s almost exactly twice as fast as the Porsche: one of the fastest-accelerating cars most of us will ever encounter. Look at it another way: Tell me another car that can go from 0 to 100 mph as fast as the ‘Segg does from 50 to 150? The list is very small, made up of cars like the Ferrari 296 GTB and the McLaren 750S. Think about the extra air that has to be removed, the fact that the Jesko Attack is dragging a huge wing through the air.

That doesn’t seem to slow him down unduly. It goes from 100 to 200 mph in 8.16 seconds, a time that would lend credence to cars like the BMW M4 or a regular Porsche 911.

Let’s step away from the big numbers and focus on the distance: the ¼ mile. Here he split Ferrari and Porsche in time, but even with a better start it would be difficult to make a 9.7 second quarter on the Dunsfold surface. But just look at his speed through the trap! After just 400m it was going 170mph, 20mph faster than the Ferrari. Just out of curiosity, it went ½ mile in 14.81 seconds at 209.1 mph.

It’s an incredible feeling to drive the Jesko, because up to 100mph you feel the traction diminish, so acceleration comes in fits and starts. Above that it’s like you’ve released the handbrake. It simply moves forward in a way that no supercar and very few other cars of any kind can come close to matching. Obviously, the one that can is the McMurtry Spéirling: 50 to 150 mph took just 4.35 seconds. Goodbye, goodbye Koenigsegg.

Yes, I understand that there is no real world relevance for a car that only really starts once in three figures. But that’s a hypercar for you. Relevance is not his thing.

Anyway, go and dig deeper into the table. See what you can find.