After millionaires were annoyed to find out that they were no longer able to get behind the wheel of their Porsche Carrera GTs earlier this year, it’s now the billionaires turn to stay put for a while as Koenigsegg has placed a stop-drive order on its Jesko hypercar following a fire in Greece.
A Koenigsegg Jesko Attack “Nür Edition’’ reportedly burst into flames over the weekend in Greece, a country currently enduring a blistering heatwave that’s seen temperatures hit 109 degrees. The car was destroyed, with just a singed chassis remaining after the blaze and one very unhappy (but unharmed) owner.
The fire clearly alarmed the Swedish automaker behind the mega hypercar, as it’s now issued a stop-drive order impacting each of the Jeskos that it’s delivered so far, reports Autoblog. Thankfully, not that many drivers will be put out by the order:
Though the Jesko ownership group is witheringly small, the automaker has issued a stop-drive order for all 28 units it shipped. “Out of an abundance of caution, we ask all Jesko owners and drivers to hold off on driving their cars until we have had a chance to understand the situation better,” the automaker said.
Koenigsegg is not aware of the cause of the fires, but the passengers of the car in the film made it to safety. The Jesko’s purchase price outpaces even the most exclusive hypercars by $1 million or more, so the loss of one is hard to swallow, even if you can’t afford one.
Prior to the fire, the burned out Jesko was taking part in a luxurious rally around Greece, reports the Drive. The relatively low speeds of such jaunts through country lanes, coupled with the Jesko’s 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8 and temperatures above 100 degrees is a recipe for thermal disaster. So far, no other Jesko owners have reported spontaneous combustion of their cars.