Code brown! This is the first-ever Koenigsegg

That off-brown wedge you see above is a very significant slice of supercar history. It’s Christian Von Koenigsegg’s first crack at a supercar, and therefore, the forefather of really fast cars from Sweden.

Many years ago, it returned home from its usual residence at a Swedish car museum to meet its lineage. In attendance was the whole gang, including a Koenigsegg CC8S, CCR, CCXR Edition and CCXR. The headline acts, though, are the Agera R and the bonkers 1,340bhp, Veyron-rivalling One:1.

Released in 1996, a year behind schedule, Prototype One has an Audi V8 4.2 litre engine with a matching six-speed manual gearbox. Initially, Christian wanted to fit all Koenigseggs with Audi engines, but a deal was never done.

The bodywork is full composite and its silhouette can still be seen in the current cars. And if you take a peek at the three-piece BBS wheels, you’ll see custom centres featuring Koenigsegg’s shield logo.

But being the first car, it went through many, many iterations. It was only later in the project that Koenigsegg’s swanky ‘dihedral synchro-helix actuated’ doors were applied.

Before then, they were just boring swing out doors. But after some work and much hacking at the front panels, Christian and his team managed to get them to spiral up and out, winding sideways from horizontal to vertical in the glorious way we now love.

Now, let’s get to the main talking point: the colour.

Being proud of his first supercar, Christian had good intentions. You know, the classic bright war paint to help mark little ol’ Scandinavia on the supercar map. The plan was orange, but not a candy orange like a Lamborghini, rather a burnt orange from Volvo. A C70, to be precise.

So, Christian phoned his painter and relayed his dreams before leaving on holiday, expecting to see a sparkling effervescent orange when he returned.

However due to some slight miscommunication/ marginal colour blindness, what he got was, er, brown.

But no matter the colour, this prototype is the stepping stone that helped Koenigsegg transition across boundaries and into different dimensions of really blooming fast cars. From the CC8S supercar, to the Agera R hypercar, onto the self-confessed One:1 ‘Megacar’ and the Regera, we’ve got this proto to thank for them all. 

So for that, it’s worth a salute. Even if it is brown.