General History
For decades, it has been almost universally the case that to create a recognised, respected and successful supercar marque, a company was expected to have a heritage in motor racing. Not only the technical developments and expertise derived from track racing, but also the spirit, character and competitiveness of a racing marque have been regarded as essential contributing factors to the development of the perfect road-legal supercar. (The legendary exception of course was Lamborghini, who at the start of their career had no racing division at all but originated instead from direct competition with Ferrari’s road cars.) However, with the modern rise of “boutique” supercar manufacturers, many aspiring marque founders have bypassed this custom entirely and leapt straight into the luxury market.
Not all of them, however. Those watching closely might have guessed from the start that Christian von Koenigsegg’s fledgling company had an interest in taking up the racing side of the supercar tradition. The initials “CC”, which formed part of the name of every Koenigsegg model prior to the Agera, stand for “Competition Coupe”. And at a very early stage of their career, with only a handful of completed production cars to their name, Koenigsegg attempted to make their racing dreams a reality by beginning the development of a car for the FIA GT1 racing series: the Koenigsegg CCGT.
The development of the CCGT design, which originally evolved from the CCR, and the construction of the first – and in the event, only – car took place over several years. #012’s extremely low chassis number, compared to the date of its eventual debut, suggests that it was being worked on possibly as early as 2002, though Christian von Koenigsegg in the book “Koenigsegg CC – The Swedish Supercar” is quoted as saying that Koenigsegg’s racing project team had been up and running since 2005. However long the development process actually took, #012 eventually reached its finished form, underwent shakedown runs and testing at Ängelholm, and was finally exhibited to the public at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show alongside CCX #036 and CCXR #038.
Unfortunately just before the CCGT could be cleared to compete in its intended role, the FIA rules for the GT1 series were changed – making it mandatory for at least 350 examples of a car to be built for public sale, before that model could take part in the racing series. For Koenigsegg, who had barely forty production cars to their name in total at that time, this requirement was both practically unrealistic and out of keeping with their brand’s ethos and exclusivity. #012, the one and only existing CCGT, was therefore not accepted for competition by the FIA and, sadly, has never to this day raced against its peers in a formal series.
Despite this enforced abandonment of the CCGT as a racing project, #012 still exists and makes regular appearances at closed track days and supercar events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK. Koenigsegg’s own verdict, on their website, is that #012 “showed very promising results in its testing program and has laid the foundation for Koenigsegg's future racing aspirations” – hinting that perhaps, one day, we might yet see a successor car race in Koenigsegg colours...
