Koenigsegg: Gemera to be V8-only, 3cyl ‘Tiny Friendly Giant’ shelved for now

Tiny Friendly Giant. Not a renegade Roald Dahl character, but a camless 600bhp three-cylinder petrol engine destined for a four-seat family car developed by a small, relatively nondescript Swedish company called ‘Koenigsegg’.

Except, so-called ‘Koenigsegg’ has now confirmed this engine won’t figure in its four-seat family car, because everyone who signed up for so-called ‘Koenigsegg’s’ four-seat family car wanted… the V8.

Because, as it turns out, this nondescript Swedish company makes a rather fruity V8 filled with turbocharging and witchcraft and augmented by electricity to power said four-seat family car to the tune of 2,269bhp.

Of course you know Koenigsegg. And of course you know the Gemera. Speaking to TopGear.com, Christian von Koenigsegg said that while he believes the three-cylinder 2.0-litre TFG was a ‘visceral’, fighty little unit, Gemera customers instead all opted for the hybridised V8 version.

“In a nutshell, they all turned into V8s,” CvK said, about the Gemera’s swing from three-pots to eight. “There were so few left that asked for a three-cylinder, we managed to convince almost all of them [to go for the V8 instead]. So for the time being, it [the Gemera] is V8 only.

“That technology is still interesting, we’re still working on it,” he added. “We might eventually do it in the Gemera one day in some version, but it just took over with the V8. I understand that.”

Perhaps, as TG humbly suggested, that Scrappy Doo engine could find a home in a Koenigsegg city car? “We have ideas on the ‘Eggster! Like a sub-brand!” Clearly, he was joking.

There’s no joke with the V8. A close cousin to the one in the Jesko, this 5.0-litre features different castings, new cylinder heads, a different intake, new exhaust, and a slightly different sump among what we imagine to be many other tweaks. It’s still a ‘hot-vee’, so the turbos sit inside the vee’s banks, and in character is still similar to the Jesko.

So it still revs like a superbike. Sounds intense. Offers much speed. And coupled with a ‘Dark Matter’ electric motor and Koenigsegg’s nine-speed transmission, turns the Gemera into a four-wheel-drive, four-seater teleportation device with USB ports and heated seats. That just happens to produce 2,269bhp. Now that’s some giant.